ADVENTURES 



OF A 



FRENCH SOLDIER, 



EXEMPLIFYING THE 

EVIL, CRIME, AND 

V 

SUFFERINGS OF WAR. 



"/ 






BY 



PHILANTHROPOS, 



Author of " The Sword," " Howard and Napoleon," &c. 




BOSTON : 

JAMES LORING, 132 WASHINGTON STREET. 

SABBA.TH SCHOOL BOOK-STORE. 

1831. 



f^tv 



^ 



V 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831, / 

by James Loring, in the Clerk's Office of the 

District Court of Massachusetts. 4 



,^ iy' y 



PREFACE. 



The two little books which I composed for 
children of the Sabbath School, viz, " The 
Sword or Christmas Presents," and " Howard 
and Napoleon contrasted," having been very 
well received by the Christian public, I have 
been induced to make a third attempt. Although 
topics suitable to my purpose are not wanting, 
I have made choice of the " Adventures of a 
French Sergeant," as a medium, whereby mucli 
of the evil, crime and suffering of war may be 
exemplified. This, to be sure, might have been 
done by a work of fiction, altogether original ; 
but, beside my repugnance to books of that 
kind, there are, alas ! too many facts on hand, 
to leave any occasion to resort to fiction, to give 
an interest to such relations. Would to God, 
there were no more truth in the journals of mili- 
tary men than there are in works of fancy ; but 
we are constrained to admit the truth of the 
many horrible relations, which have been laid 
before the public in private^ military journals. 



VI PREFACE. 

A new era has commenced in history. For- 
merly, we knew but little of the operations of 
Mar, except by the general orders and bulletins 
of the belligerents, in which all was victory and 
splendour and glory. As the survivors of a 
victory are moved off from the scene of carnage 
and corpses, and leave their dead companions 
to the wolves and the vultures, or, at best, cover 
them up in shallow graves where the dogs soon 
find them out, or whelm them in pits, and leave 
the wounded to suffer and groan in hospitals, 
or on the field, and the widow and the fatherless 
and the childless to weep in secret, while they, 
with *' all the pomp and circumstance of glorious 
war," in new and splendid uniforms, with great 
bands of music, and flying colours and trophies 
of victory, make their triumphal entry into great 
cities, and* turn the heads of the youth of either 
sex; so the histories of war, as they have been 
written, leave out all the disgusting forms of 
misery, which each individual experiences in a 
thousand nameless ways, while they dwell at 
large on the dauntless courage of the combat- 
ants, tlie brilliant charges of the cavalry and in- 
fantry, the play of the artillery, and the pursuit 
of the enemy,- Indeed, if a great man falls, his 
fate is much lamented ; but lamented in such a 
way as to make thousands of thoughtless youth 
envy his fate. But the death and sufferings of 
the privates are passed over in the aggregate, 
and no other account is made of them, than that 
the force of the army is weakened by so many 



PREFACE. Vli 

thousands of killed and wounded, whose place 
must be supplied by new levies. '* When princes 
play for provinces, men's lives are the counters." 

To make up for this defect in history, a num- 
ber of subaltern officers and privates have, since 
the last wars in Europe, undertaken to write 
their private adventures, and these come home 
to our feelings. We have been so long used to 
hear of the thousands and tens of thousands 
slaughtered in a battle, that the very magnitude 
and frequency destroy the effect ; but we enter 
into the feelings and sufferings of individuals, 
though w'e cannot multiply them by the number 
of sufferers. 

Among these private memoirs I have chosen 
" The Adventures of a French Sergeant" for the 
theme of this volume. I have followed the author 
through all the vicissitudes of his fortune, leaving 
out such particulars as were the least interesting, 
or least to the purpose of showing the nature of 
war. I have also, as far as practicable in an 
abridgment, followed the exact language of the 
English translator. When I have altered the 
personal pronoun and made considerable omis- 
sions, still retaining the language of the transla- 
tor, I have used single marks of quotation, but 
when I have used his exact words, without any 
alteration except abridgment, I have put double 
marks. I have inserted the reflections of the 
author and added many of my own, in order to 
make the facts stated useful to the youthful read- 
er. I have also added many facts, pariicularly 



Vlll PREFACE, 

concerningr the character and death of lord Nel- 
son and the Russian campaign, in which the 
book was deficient. These I have taken from 
authors of high repute, and have no doubt of their 
correctness. Should any one doubt my conclu- 
sions, or the justness of my reflections, I entreat 
him to lay aside the prejudices of early educa- 
tion, and take the Gospel for his standard, and, 
after a prayerful examination of the subject, I 
think he will be convinced that I am right. 

In hopes that my little book may help to bring 
on that glorious era when nations shall learn 
war no more, I remain 

The Christian public's much obliged and 
grateful servant, 

PHILANTHROPOS, 

August, 1831. 



TfH5 

ADVENTURES 

OF A 

FRENCH SOLDIER. 



CHAPTER I. 

1805, Conscription — Departure for the army—Arrival 
at Cadiz. 

Robert Gutllemard was born about the 
year 17S5, at Sixfour, a small town, or vil- 
lage, of about fifty houses, near Toulon, in 
France. His father was the Mayor of Six- 
four, and had brought up Robert to no occu- 
pation, without even thinking of a trade or 
profession, until he was eighteen years old, 
when he inclined to enter the French na- 
vy, from hearing an uncle of his, who was 
a master's mate in a French man-of-war, 
relate his adventures. This desire became 
stronger by having a friend of his, by the 
name of Rymbauld, appointed a midshipman. 
2 



iO ADVENTURES OF A f 

Robert went on board several times to dine 
with him and his companions. The author- 
ity which these young men, scarcely out of y^ 
their boyhood, possessed over grown up men, 
their gaiety, their future prospects, the dan- 
gers to which they were exposed, and, more 
than all this, the elegance of their uniforms, 
made him regret that he had not sooner em- 
braced a profession, for which he fancied 
himself very well fitted. 

Such things often determine giddy young 
men in the choice of a profession, without 
any regard to the dangers to which they ex- 
pose, not only their health and life, but the |^ 
salvation of the immortal soul. The love of 
authority over his fellow-creatures, especially 
over men older than himself, and the love of 
the glitter, tinsel, and show of the uniforms | 
are the most common among the motives 
v/hich induce a thoughtless young man to 
choose a soldier's life. What motives for a 
Christian I It is our duty to imitate Christ. 
Did Christ, or any of his apostles, ever ap- 
pear dressed up in the gewgaws and foppery f 
" of a military uniform .'' Could any one re- 
cognize a child of Christ, with the humility 
and gentleness which characterized the 
"Lamb of God /^ bedecked with the ditterins: ^ 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 11 

trappings of war, and wearing a burnished hel- 
met, inscribed with 'Victory or Death.' The 
followers of Mahomet, and the false prophet 
himself, might have been dressed so, for it 
became their bloody rehgion ; and 1 do not 
say that a real Christian may not be decked 
out in so ridicidous a manner, but I do say, 
that there must be an awful difference be- 
tween the outer and the inner man. It is 
well known to kings and conquerors and war- 
like statesmen, that this love of finery is a 
great inducement for vain young men to en- 
list, and, therefore, they encourage it, for as 
the celebrated Doctor Rush used to say, " If 
there were no uniforms, there would be no 
armies," What a satire on the boasted dig- 
nity of human nature ! 

, Robert had his name entered on the books 
of a man-of-war, in spite of his father's op- 
position to it, but, before he could be exam- 
ined as a midshipman, he was drafted as a 
conscript to serve in the army. 

My young readers, perhaps, do not know 
what the word " conscript" means. I will 
tell them. During the wars which followed 
the French revolution, the destruction of life 
was so great, that men could not be found in 
sufficient numbers, who would voluntarily 



12 ADVENTURES OF A 

enlist into the army. So they were drawn 
by lot from fourteen years old and upwards, 
and sometimes the waste of life was so great 
and the demand for men so urgent, that the 
classes of conscription were called out in 
advance, and hoys of twelve or thirteen years 
of age were forced into the army, where 
great numbers of them perished by fatigue, 
without ever having seen any other enemy 
than their own countrymen. How happy 
ou2;ht the children of these United Stales 
to be, and how grateful to God, that this 
dreadful scourge never visited this coun- 
try. But all nations, that love war and mil- ' 
itary glory, must submit to conscription and 
impressment, and other equally cruel, and 
often even more wicked, means of recruiting \ 
the army and navy. This calamity falls 
heaviest on the poor ; for rich men's sons 
often escape their lot, either by bribing the 
officers, or procuring a substitute to go in 
their place ; but this requires a great deal of 
money. ' Robert's father wished to procure ^ 
a substitute, but they were extreniely dear, 
and the purchase would have made a con- 
siderp.ble breach in his fortune.' So he was 
compelled to march. How cruel it must be, \ 
to take from a poor old man his only hope 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 13 

and support in his old age ! What induce- 
ment has a father, in such countries, to edu- 
cate a son to a trade or profession, when he 
is hable, every moment, to be dragged away, 
to end his life, on some distant shore, and 
spill his blood in a war, waged by the avarice 
or ambition of some despot or statesman, in 
which the poor conscript has no interest, and 
of which he frequently does not know even 
the cause ! 

The conscripts were assembled at Toulon, 
May 1, 1805, and were then sent to a dis- 
tant regiment. ' At the moment of their de- 
parture, the colonel made them a very fine 
speech upon their zeal for the service, and 
the ardour with which they flew to the de- 
fence of their country !' What a mockery ! 
It was to conquer other countries, and not to 
defend their own, that these conscripts were 
dragged from their peaceful homes. ' Mean- 
while, all the newspapers and all the procla- 
mations of the head of the government spoke 
of nothing but the emulation of the young 
conscripts, who, on all sides, took arms of 
their own accord, presented themselves be- 
fore they were called, and covered every 
road on their march to join the different corps 
to which they were appointed.' It is by false- 

9* 



14 ADVENTURES OF A 

hoods such as these, that militarf govern- 
ments deceive the people. Falsehood is 
always allowed in war, notwithstanding the 
curse denounced against all liars. There is 
no exception made in favour of generals or 
statesrnen. 

' At the first halt, Robert was quartered 
with the other conscripts of the detachment. 
His surprise was great, when he heard his 
companions, in the evening, bitterly regretting 
their country, complaining, in \\o measured 
terms, of the law which forced them to leave 
it, and always forming plans for desertion. 
The nature of their conversation did not 
much agree with the colonel's address, the 
language of the newspapers, or the procla- 
mations of the government;' for the conscripts 
told the truth, but the others told falsehoods, 
for war is from beginning to end, a game of 
deception. 

The young conscripts were marched to 
Port Vendres, and were ordered on board 
men-of-war, ' not without murmuring, but, in 
spite of their murmurs, they were obliged to 
put, as the saying is, " their foot in the shoe," 
the officers assuring them, that they should 
be but a short time on board, and that they 
were going only so far as the coast of Brit- 



FRENCH SOLDIERi 15 

tany, to join a camp :' another falsehood, for 
they were carried to Cadiz, in Spain, and 
Robert's company was put on board the Re- 
doutable, a ship of seventy- four guns, to take 
the place of marines. 

Here Robert found his old friend Rym- 
bauld, and wished to be familiar with him, 
but was soon repulsed by his former friend, 
who was an officer, while Robert was only a 
private. There is no friendship in war, 
every one is for himself; and officers fre- 
quently rejoice at the fall of their superiors, 
because it forwards their own promotion. 



16 ADVENTURES OF A 



CHAPTER II. 

1805. Battle of Trafalgar— Death of Nelson— Capture 
and destruction of the combined French and Span- 
ish fleet. 

The Spanish and French fleets sailed to- 
gether, out of the harbor of Cadiz, Oct. 2 1st, 
and engaged the British fleet, ofFcape Trafal- 
gar. Robert's ship began the action, by firing 
a broadside into the ship of the British admi- 
ral. Lord Nelson, called the Victory, f The 
British vessel returned the fire, and, at the 
same moment, there began, along the whole 
of the two lines, a fire of artillery, which was 
not to cease, except by the extermination of 
one of the squadrons. Already cries of suf- 
fering and death were heard on the decks of 
the Redoutable. By the first discharge, 
one oflicer and more than thirty soldiers and 
sailors were killed and wounded. This was 
the first time Robert had been in action, and 
an emotion, he had never felt till now, made 
his heart beat violently. All the men in the 
main-top had been killed, when he was or- 
dered, with two sailors and four soldiers, to 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 17 

occupy th^ir places. While they were go- 
ing aloft, the cannon balls and grape shot 
showered around them, struck the masts and 
yards, knocked large splinters out of them, 
and cut the rigging to pieces. One of his 
companions was wounded by his side, and 
fell from the height of thirty feet upon the 
deck, where he broke his neck.' 

When he reached the top, he saw ' for 
more than a league extended, a thick cloud 
of smoke, above which, was discernable a 
forest of masts and rigging. Thousands of 
flashes penetrated this cloud, and a rolling 
noise, similar to the sound of continued thun- 
der, but much louder, rose from its bosom.' 
He w^as left alone in the top ; his comrades 
had all been killed or wounded. He looked 
at the two vessels engaged. ' The smoke 
which enveloped them was disengaged for a 
moment, and returned thicker at each broad- 
side. The. two decks were covered with 
dead bodies, which they had not lime to 
throw overboard. The captain was wound- 
ed. He saw on the poop of the English ship, 
a man with but one hand, gorgeously deco- 
rated with stars, orders and garters.' It was 
Admiral Lord Nelson. Robert fired off his 
gun, and he supposes, killed Nelson. The 



18 ADVENTURES OF A 

fire ceased for a while, on board the Eng- 
lish ship, but was soon renewed with re- 
doubled fury. Another English ship engaged 
the Redoutable, and another French ship the 
Victory, so that the two ships were firing on 
both sides at once, and probably many men 
were killed, or wounded, by the balls of their 
own countrymen. There was then seen a 
sight, hitherto unexampled in naval warfare, 
and not since repeated — four ships all in the 
same direction, touching each other, dashing 
one against another, intermingling their yards, 
and fighting with a fury which no language 
can express. 

Here, my dear young reader, you may, 
perhaps, be inclined to ask. Are they Turks? 
Are they savages ? No, my dear child. They 
are not Turks. The Mahometans do not 
destroy one another like Christians. They 
are not savages. They call themselves men. 
Christians, civilized. The sign of that cross, 
on which your blessed Redeemer poured out 
his life for his enemies, floats above this 
ocean of fire and smoke, and over these decks 
strewed wnth the mangled bodies and dis- 
jointed limbs of those for whom He died; 
and, probably, there were chaplains, minis- 
ters of the gospel of peace, on board some of 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 19 

these ships, praying to God, for Christ's sake, 
for power to destroy their fellow-creatures. 
Oh, what a scene for a Christian indeed to 
be engaged in ! When he fires his gun, or 
pushes his boarding pike into the bosom of his 
fellow-creature, he is either sending a poor 
sinful soul to that place " where the worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," or 
else, he is killing his brother-christian ; and, 
if he should himself be killed in the action, 
how can he appear before the judgment seat 
of Christ, red with his brother's blood ? or 
how can he meet his slaughtered brother 
there, slain by his hand ? Or, if he appears 
there alone, after having sent a poor sinful 
creature to endless perdition, and God shall 
demand of him, " Where is thy brother ?" 
will he answer in the words of Cain, " I 
know not ; am I my brother's keeper !" Oh 
that such scenes should ever disgrace Chris- 
tendom ! Surely, when Christians come to 
think of it, they will abolish the custom of 
war ; or, if nominal Christians will engage 
in it, the Christian indeed will come out from 
among them, and be separate. I do not 
say, that a nation should not defend itself 
against actual invasion, but I do say that, 
if Christian governments put more con- 



20 ADVENTURES OF A 

fidence in God and less in iheir own arm, 
they would be in but little danger of invasion. 
It is related of Jelioshaphat, king of Judah, 
that he sent priests and Leviles "through all 
the cities of Judah ; and they taught the peo- 
ple ; and the fear of the Lord fell upon all 
the kingdoms of the land that were round 
about Judah, so that they made no war 
against Jehoshaphat." 2 Chronicles, chap, 
xvii. verses 6 to 9. 

' Amidst nearly four hundred pieces of 
cannon, all firing at one time in a confined 
space — amid the noise of the balls, which 
made furious breaches in the side of the Re- 
doutable — among the splinters, which flew 
in every direction with the speed of projec- 
tiles, and the dashing of the vessels, which 
w^ere driven by the waves against each oth- 
er, not a soul thought of any thing but de- 
stroying the enemy, and the cries of the 
wounded and dying were no longer heard. 
The men fell, and, if they were any imped- 
iment to the action of the gun, one of their 
companions pushed them aside, with his foot, 
to the middle of the deck, and, without utter- 
ing a word, placed himself with concentrated 
fury at the same post, where he soon expe- 
rienced a similar fate.' What a heart-rending 
scene ! 



FllENCH SOLDIER. 21 

* In less than half an hour, the Redoutable, 
without having hauled down her colors, had, 
in fact, surrendered. Her fire had gradual- 
ly slackened, and then ceased altogether. 
The mutilated bodies of Robert's companions 
encumbered the two decks, which w^ere cov- 
ered with shot, broken cannon, matches still 
smoking, and broken timbers. One of the 
thirty-sis pounders had burst, toward the 
close of the contest. The thirteen men, 
placed at it, had been killed by the splinters } 
and were heaped together around the broken 
carriage. Not more than one hundred and 
fifty men survived out of a crew of more than 
eight hundred, and most of these were more 
or less severely wounded.' He says, ^' I 
went over the ship, where every thing pre- 
sented a prospect of desolation. Calm de- 
spair was painted on the countenances of 
those who had escaped from this terrible 
scene. Among the dead, I saw the ill-fated 
Rymbauld, the friend of my infancy. At the 
utmost, he was not more than eighteen. His 
sword had been broken in his fall, he was 
wounded, by a chain-shot, in his right breast, 
and fell against the wheel of a cannon. The 
disordered state of his features indicated that 
his sufferings had been great. His disfigur- 



22 ADVENTURES OF A 

ed remains inspired me with painful reflec- 
tions, and brought to my mind a host of bit- 
ter recollections. 1 left the spot, and I must 
confess, that my eyes filled with tears. 1 
had not yet been able to acquire that indif- 
ference, which a soldier displays, from a 
constant habit of witnessing similar scenes." 
War hardens the heart and blunts the feel- 
ings ; and the time will come, when Robert 
will think no more of killing a man, than a 
butcher does of killing a calf. He miist do 
that, or never become a brave soldier. Be- 
fore a man can delight in war, he must put 
off all feelings of humanity, and all the Chris- 
tian graces, particularly " the ornament of a 
meek and quiet spirit," which is worth infi- 
nitely more than the ornament of an epaulet. 
Alas, poor Kymbauld ! How short was his 
career in the race of glory ! How many 
thousands and myriads of yoimg men have 
experienced the same fate,. and had all their 
fond expectations cut off in their first battle ! 
Not one in ten thousand ever arrives at the 
summit of his hopes — perhaps, not one in 
an hundred thousand. Yet how many are 
willing to risk their lives and limbs and im- 
mortal souls to gain a fleeting transitnr)' prize, 
with at least ten thousand chances to one 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 23 

against them. Of all lotteries, the lottery of 
war is the greatest cheat. 

The great Lord Nelson was killed in this 
engagement, as Robert supposes, by him, 
but, in this, he indulges that sort of vain 
glory which is common to soldiers of all 
ranks, for it was the Santissima Trinidada, or 
Most Holy Trinity, (what a most blasphe- 
mous name for a man-of-war,) a Spanish ship 
of four decks and one hundred and thirty- 
six guns, that engaged the Victory, and was 
even lashed to her, so that the muzzles of the 
guns, when run out, nearly touched the 
sides of the opposing ships. It is true, the 
Redoutable was also engaged with the Vic- 
tory, and even run foul of her, but the honor 
of killing Lord Nelson has always been giv- 
en 10 a Spaniard, who fired from the main 
top of the Santissima Trinidada, and who has 
since received great honors and a pension 
for life, for the deed. Had he saved a great 
man's life instead of destroying it, probably, 
he would have had neither honor nor pension. 

Nelson did not die immediately on receiv- 
ing his wound, but lived about an hour in 
great pain, but in the full enjoyment of his 
faculties. It does not appear, that, in his 
last moments, he thought of heaven or hell, 



24 ADVENTURES OF A 

to one of which he was going ; he only 
thought of victory and fame. When Capt. 
Hardy told him, that fourteen or fifteen of 
the enemy had struck, he answered, " That's 
well, but 1 bargained for tw^enty." With 
whom did Nelson bargain ? It is not for 
ine to say whether he was a pious man or 
not. He was the son of a clergyman of the 
Church of England, and, one would suppose 
from that circumstance, that he was piously 
educated. He was always remarkable for 
an insatiable thirst for praise, and was never 
satisfied with the distinctions bestowed on 
him, great and uncommon as they were. If 
he was a man of piety, there is no rcQord of 
his conversion. Nelson was very profane 
in his language, especially in a battle, a thing 
so common, both in the army and navy, as 
scarcely to be noticed. His conduct, in al- 
lowing the republicans of Naples to be mas- 
sacred under his own eye, in violation of the 
most sacred treaties, speaks but little for his 
morality, or humanity, to say nothing of pie- 
ty ; and his infamous connexion with Lady 
Hamilton during the lifetime of her husband 
and of his own wife, though he had long lived 
happily with her, looks much like adultery. 
Some of his last words to his wife were, '^ I 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 25 

call God to witness, that there is nothing in 
you, or your conduct, that I wish otherwise." 
Yet he left her entirely, and took up with an 
abandoned and profligate woman.' I know, 
that such things are tolerated in great warri- 
ors, and, when a man has caused the de- 
struction of a great many of his fellow-crea- 
tures, it is ihought to be wrong to look into 
his private life, and very illiberal to doubt his 
piety. " On the morning of this his last con- 
lest, for what the world calls, glory and 
immortality, he wrote a prayer in his journal, 
and solemnly bequeathed Lady Hamilton to 
his king and country." — (Rees.) Al! Nel- 
son's public despatches had an air of piety, 
which, it is to be feared, was but a sort of 
official hypocrisy. 1 repeat it, it is not for 
me to say, whether Nelson was pious ; God 
only knows the heart ; but we see nothing of 
his piety at the hour of death. He asked no 
intercession of Christ. He expressed no 
hopes in a Redeemer. There was no pray- 
er offered up as his soul departed. The 
cannon still roared on deck : blood was 
flowing in torrents, and thousands of souls 
were winging their doleful flight to the re- 
gions of despair. Nelson, though, according 
to the estimation of the world, a 2;reat man, 
3* 



26 ADVENTURES OF A 

was far from being, I fear, either a pious man 
or a happy one. It is said, that he wished 
to die in this battle, and, therefore, put on all 
his stars, orders, and epaulets, and other 
gewgaws, which exposed him, particularly, 
to be fired at by the men in the enemy's tops. 
He was requested, by his friends, to take 
them off, or at least, to cover them up ; but 
he refused ; and probably died with them on. 
Could he hope, with trinkets like these, to 
appease an angry Judge ? Did his stars an4 
garters and epaulets procure him any dis- 
tinction at the bar of God ? Alas, no ! There 
his distinctions fail : they cease forever. 
Though men may pay divine honors ,to his 
earthly remains, erect statues to him, and 
emblazon his tomb, all this cannot keep the 
soul from the worm that never dies, and the 
fire that never shall be quenched. Oh how 
many wish to die the death of a hero: but 
" let me die the death of the righteous, and 
let my last end be like his,^^ 

*A very strong gale arose in the evening, 
and blew through the night with extreme vi- 
olence ; and soon scattered the wrecks of the 
vessels which covered the sea. The Santissi- 
ma Trinidada was sunk : the Spanish Admi- 
ral was taken off, but died of his wound. The 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 27 

Aigle, a French seventy-four, lost almost all 
its crew, was taken, and was cast on shore 
during the night, on the Spanish coast, where 
both French and English were drowned to- 
gether. The Indomptable foundered at sea, 
with fifteen hundred wounded men on board, 
not one of whom was saved. The Achille 
was set on fire during the action. The Eng- 
lish, who were fighting it, sheared off, and of 
eight hundred men, who formed the crew, 
not more than twenty found an opportunity 
of escaping. When all hopes of stopping the 
progress of the flames were gone, and death 
seemed inevitable, to avoid waiting for it, 
several officers blew out their brains. Oth- 
ers threw themselves into the flames. Se- 
veral sailors went to the store room, gorged 
themselves with brandy, and, by the most 
complete drunkenness, endeavored to throw 
a veil over the disaster which was about to 
close their existence.' What a preparation 
for eternity ! Towards six o'clock in the 
evening, the fire reached the powder maga- 
zine, the vessel blew up, and every thing dis- 
appeared. On most other occasions, these 
unfortunate men could have been saved ; but 
'without troubhng themselves about their fate, 
the two fleets thought of nothing but the de- 



2o ADVENTURES OF A 

struction of each other. The combined fleet 
was annihilated, and, of all those vessels be- 
longing to it which were engaged in this ac- 
tion, the English could save but one single 
vessel, the rest of the prizes all perished at 
sea, on the coast, and by fire ! 

Surely, this was a dearbought victory. 
The remains of Nelson were carried to Lon- 
don, and buried with the greatest' funeral 
pomp ever displayed in England. If 1 re- 
member rightly, the city of London was illu- 
minated for this victory, and thanks offered 
in the churches to God. 1 was once present 
in London at k similar procession for victory, 
and the pomp, parade and show beggared all 
description. Being tired of standing, 1 re- 
tired to a church, in which, besides the min- 
isters and officers of the church, and a few 
charity scholars, there were not lialf a doz- 
en hearers. The pomp and' splendor were 
all outside the church, and that was wiiat 
the people niost cared about. It is by these 
processions and rejoicings, and this pomp, 
parade, and show, that Christians are recon- 
ciled to all the horrors and abominations of 
war : the rich are content to pay half their 
income to support it, and the poor to be taxed 
on the very necessaries of life, and to give 



FRENCH SOLBIER. 29 

the bread out of their niouths, and send their 
children supperless to bed, that they may 
participate in these general rejoicings, at the 
destruction of their fellow-creatures- They 
complain, indeed, loud enough, against their 
taxes, but still, from the prince to the beg- 
gar, are fond of military glory, the cause of 
all their sufferings. 

" The rack'd inhabitants repine — complain — 
Tax'd, till the brow of labor sweats in vain. 
War layiSfa burden on the reeling state, 
And peace does nothing to relieve the weight. 
Successive loads succeeding broils impose, 
And sighing millions prophesy the close." 

The Expostulation. 

But where were the widows and orphans 
and the childless parents, w^hom this fatal vic- 
tory had bereaved ? Alas ! they may retire and 
weep in secret : the gay and joyous crowd 
think little of their griefs. Where are the 
wounded ? They are yet writhing in pain 
and anguishj their limbs amputated, and ma- 
ny of them dying a lingering and painful 
death. Where are the dead ? They are bu- 
ried in the ocean, and have already been de- 
voured by the sharks and monsters of the 
deep. And where are the souls of the de- 
parted ^ Who can draw aside the veil which 



30 ADVENTURES OF A 

hides eternity from our view, and say how 
many of them are already doomed to unut- 
terable anguish ? And yet the unthinking 
multitude rejoice, and England is a Christian 
country ! 



FRENCH SOLDIEK, 31 



CHAPTER III. 

1805 to 1808. Departure for England — Return to Franc©' 
— Death of the French Admiral — Interview with 
Bonaparte — Campaign of Italy — Siege of Stralsand 
—Duel. 

On the evening of the 22d of October, the 
fleet set sail for England. The voyage was 
long and painful, especially to the French 
prisoners. M. Villeneuve, the French Ad- 
miral, having been wounded in the right 
hand, inquired for a clerk among the prison- 
ers, when Robert offered himself and was re- 
ceived, so that he was attached to the reti- 
nue of the Admiral, and never left him until 
his death. After much delay, the Admiral 
obtained leave to go to France on his parole. 
As soon as he got there, he began operations, 
in order to try the officers of his fleet at a court 
martial for bad conduct in the battle, to which 
he attributed his defeat. He was soon after 
found dead in his bed, stabbed in five places. 
It was generally supposed that he committed 



32 ADVENTURES OF A 

suicide; but Robert affirms that he was as- 
sassinated, as he insinuates, by the officers, 
to prevent their trial. Robert's suspicion got 
to the ears of the Emperor Napoleon, who 
sent for him, and heard his story. But, he 
either did not believe him, or he was too 
much occupied with other things, or chose to 
wink at the crime. Robert was ordered to 
join his regiment, a party of which was then 
at Paris, and passed his time in dissipation, as 
soldiers generally do, spending the Sabbath 
at places of public amusement, and " fight- 
ing sometimes." But soldiers, who can read 
and write, hope for promotion; and Robert 
was anxious to be engaged in battle, for 
without battles and others being killed off, 
there is but little hope of promotion in the ar- 
my. It was, therefore, with pleasure, that he 
saw his detachment ordered to the north of 
Italy. It is wonderful, how quickly the young 
conscript learns the manners of a soldier. He 
soon gets to be dissipated and abandoned,, 
forgets his family and friends, throws the reins 
on the neck of his passions, indulges in every 
excess, and is willing, and even desires, to 
venture his life for the sake of plunder and 
honor ! And it is wonderful, that a parent 
should choose a profession for his son so full 



FRENCH SOLDIER. S3 

of danger not to his body only, that is a trifle, 
but to his immortal soul. 

Though the greater part of the time in 
Italy was spent in idleness, or in brilliant re- 
views, a part of the time the army was order- 
ed to make forced marches, sometimes of 
thirty miles a day, probably to inure the 
young conscripts to the hardships of a sol- 
dier's life. 

Robert's regiment was next ordered into 
Swedish Comerania, to attack the city of 
Stralsand. Having driven in the advanced 
posts, consisting of Swedes and English, they 
came to the environs of the city. ' This spot 
had not yet suffered the devastation which is 
inseparable from a siege and a camp, and was 
covered with charming country houses and 
gardens, elegant pavilions, flowers and ver- 
dure. In one moment, every thing was 
changed ; the dead bodies and the wounded 
of both parties dyed with their blood this spot 
so agreeable a moment before, and the turf 
was trodden down in every direction, and 
strewed with the remnants of cartridges.' 
Robert had the unhappiness to kill one of 
the enemy, against whom he certainly could 
have had no enmity, as the man was a stran- 
ger and employed in defending his country. 
4 



34 ADVENTURES OF A 

For this, Robert was made a corporal ; and 
was ordered to take four men with him, and 
burn a windmill, of which there were several 
near. ' They were forced to drive in the 
door, and were preparing to execute their 
orders, when they were surprised by the ap- 
pearance of a woman making a piteous lam- 
entation, followed by two children from five 
to six years of age. She stretched out her 
arms, in a tone of supplication, and threw 
herself at our feet.' But a soldier must obey 
his orders, even if he had been commanded 
to butcher the woman and her children. Of 
course, he turned a deaf ear to her entrea- 
ties, and ' collected in a corner of the mill 
some wood and straw, set fire to it, and it 
soon spread to the building. The poor wo- 
man's despair was then at its height. She 
rolled herself on the ground in convulsions, 
and wished to throw herself into the flames. 
Her children raised a terrible outcry, and 
hung round their mother.' This would have 
been rare sport for older soldiers, such is war 
and glory ; and every man who enlists into the 
army, voluntarily engages to do such things, 
when he is ordered. A soldier is not allow- 
ed to hear the voice of conscience. He 
must obey man, rather than Grod. 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 35 

Notwithstanding all the horrors of the siege 
the French army found seasons for revelry 
and mirth. The fete of Saint Napoleon was 
celebrated by races, games, dances, and 
drinking. A theatre was erected and plays 
acted, notwithstanding the wounded, the dy- 
ing and the dead. A fit celebration for the 
day of such a saint. I do not believe that 
such saints are found in heaven. 

Stralsand was taken, and the Swedes com- 
pelled to make peace with the French. This 
was very fortunate for the French army, for 
their situation had become very uncomforta- 
ble. * It rained incessantly. Their hats had 
been covered with rye straw, cut while green, 
and long since dried up, and no longer af- 
fording sufficient shelter. They got nothing 
but very unwholesome food. Thousands of 
worms produced by moisture destroyed their 
bread, covered their clothes, and swarmed in 
the cut and half rotten straw, which served 
them to lie upon.' Such unwholesome food 
and encampments frequently cause pestilential 
diseases, which sweep away whole regiments, 
particularly of young recruits, and destroy 
more than the sword. 

The regiment was ordered to Wismar. 
They saw nothing but desolation and misery 



36 ADVENTURES OF A 

on their march, the inevitable consequences 
of war. Robert had the good fortune to be 
quartered at a village near Wismar, where 
he was well received by the lady of the ma- 
nor, on account of his literary acquirements, 
though he was only a corporal. Here he 
was also so fortunate as to save the life of a 
Spaniard, whose name was Valdejo ; which 
favour was afterwards returned by Valdejo 
in Spain. 

The French army had been victorious, and 
it is wonderful to observe how victory inflates 
the vanity and pride of a nation, and makes 
it almost adore the conquerors. In the part 
of France, which the army traversed on their 
march to Spain, whither they were now or- 
dered, fetes were given in every town ; the 
officers were invited to balls and public din- 
ners ; triumphal arches were raised ; and the 
eagles crowned with laurels. It is by such 
things, that the people of Europe keep up 
that military spirit, which keeps them down, 
and rivets their chains the stronger. Young 
officers are charmed with such distinctions, 
and they care but little for the justice of the 
cause for which they fight, or for the liberty 
of the people. They are very likely to sup- 
port the man who gives them war, victory and 



FRENCH SOLDIER. o7 

glory, in preference to Him, who gives them 
peace and liberty ; for mankind generally 
love slavery with glory, better than they love 
liberty with peace. But 

" War is a game, which, were their subjects wise. 
Kings could not play at." — Cowper. 

All this honor, however, was not without 
some envy from the regiments that had not 
been in ^ction. " One Sunday afternoon, 
Robert went into a grogshop, which was full 
of men belonging to the different corps. Ro- 
bert and his companions were bitterly re- 
proached with the honors they received in 
every town, and hints were thrown out, that 
they were undeserved. A dispute and quar- 
rel arose, which ended in a duel, six against 
six. Robert was wounded and taken to the 
hospital, but he does not say whether any 
were killed or not. Duels are common in 
all christian armies, but, in the American 
service, officers only are allowed the honor 
of fighting duels, the privates and petty offi- 
cers would be punished for it. But any 
young officer, who should refuse a challenge, 
would be disgraced. Indeed, I do not see 
how it can well be otherwise, for war and 
duelling are just the same ; and, whether the 

4* 



38 ADVENTURES OF A 

battle be between two, or twelve, or twelve 
thousand, there is no difference in that law 
of God, which says, " Thou shall not kill." 
A battle is but a great duel, though some, 
who approve of war, condemn duelling: but 
they are very inconsistent. They say that a 
court of honor could settle all disputes be- 
tween individuals. And could not a court of 
nations settle all disputes between nations? 
However, every young man, wh<P goes into 
the army with any hope of preferment, must 
make up his mind to fight a duel if challeng- 
ed ; and if his conscience will not let him do 
that, he should not enlist. 



FKENCH SOLDIER. 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

1609 and 1 810. Battle of Wagram— Death of Colonel 
Oudet — War in Spain — Taken prisoner by the Span- 
iards — Sent to the Island of Cabrera — Starvation of 
the Prisoners. 

« 

As Robert was detained by the wound re- 
ceived in the duel, he could not immediate- 
ly follow his regiment — but as soon as he got 
well set out after it, and, on his way, fell in 
with another regiment, which he was desir- 
ous of joining, in hopes of more speedy pro- 
motion ; the colonel Oudet was desirous of 
having Robert in his regiment, on account 
of his learning, and he got the change effect- 
ed, and appointed him harbinger of a com- 
pany — an officer in the French service, who 
looks to the quarters and accommodations of 
the company to which he belongs. He now 
marched to encounter new dangers and hard- 
ships in Austria. Probably he knew nothing 
of the cause of the war, and cared but little 
whether it was just or unjust, and would kill 



40 ADVENTURES OF A 

an Austrian as readily as he would a Swede, 
an Englishman, or a Spaniard. He was at 
the battle of Wagram, of which he gives but 
little account, for, in these great battles, the 
greater part, even of the officers, often know 
but little of the affair, except where they are 
immediately engaged. All that a private has 
to do, is, to obey his officer, to advance when 
he is ordered, to shoot and stab those he is 
told to, and to run away when he sees oth- 
ers run. All the rest is but carntge, death 
and wounds, mangled limbs and headless 
trunks, with groans, shrieks, sho'uts, curses, 
and blasphemy, which the drums and trum- 
pets ill vain endeavor to drown. 

After the victory was W'on by the French, 
Robert's regiment, still commanded by Ou- 
det, though wounded, was ordered to follow 
the enemy, and fell in w^ith one of the divis- 
ions, who attacked the French, killed a great 
many men, and mortally w'ounded the colo- 
nel. Robert was wounded in the breast by 
a musket ball, which laid him senseless for a 
time. 'When he opened his eyes, be saw 
the dead bodies of his companions around 
him. Two entire battalions lay dead beside 
him, w^ith the colonel in the midst of them. 
The Austrians had retreated, and the silence 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 41 

■around him was only broken by the groans 
of the dying.' He again became insensible, 
and only recovered his recollection, when he 
was taken to a temporary hospital. The co- 
lonel survived some days. Robert saw him 
die, and saw his funeral. He was buried in 
the garden of the house which had been 
turned into a hospital, and one of Robert's 
friends, a subaltern, " rendered desperate by 
his sorrow for the colonel's loss, and perhaps 
disgusted with a life in which all his best 
founded hopes had perished one after anoth- 
er^ threw himself on his sword beside the 
grave of Oudet." Suicide was very com- 
mon in the French army. The soldiers 
were always taught not to fear death, and 
were kept in dreadful ignorance of a future 
state. It was a maxim with Bonaparte, that, 
if soldiers were not depraved, they should 
be made so. 

As Robert had fought very bravely on this 
and some other occasions, he now expected 
promotion, but was disappointed. Most of 
the men of the regiment he had lately joined 
had been killed, and it remained only a skel- 
eton ; he was therefore desirous of going back 
to his old regiment, which had lost only the 
colonel, the major, and twelve other officers, 



42 ADVENTURES OF A 

and half the non-commissioned officers and 
privates, killed in the glorious victory, beside 
the wounded. His hopes of promotion were 
again disappointed, and he was still but a har- 
binger. 

Robert now began to lead a dull, insipid 
life, without any events of magnitude to arouse 
his attention, and got heartily sick of repose. 
Indeed, a man, situated as a soldier general- 
ly is in time of peace, (for a peace had been 
made between France and Austria,) without 
a family, without connexions, or any reli- 
gious friends, and with none of those pleas- 
ures which flow from the social worship of 
God, and from religious society, feels an 
aching void when he loses that excitement 
which war creates, and he longs for it, as ar- 
dently as a drunkard does for his bowl, or 
the gambler for his dice. Men used to ac- 
tive service feel an uneasy sensation without 
it, in the same manner as the drunkard feels 
an uneasy sensation without ardent spirits, 
which he knows will soon lay him in the gut- 
ter with the swine. The ruined gamester, 
who has lost his last dollar at dice, if be can 
beg, borrow, or steal another, flies with it to 
the gaming table, where he is almost sure to 
lose it ; but he cannot overcome his propen- 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 43 

sity. And the poor miserable outcast of the 
female sex often escapes from the house of 
refuge, to throw herself on vice and want and 
misery. Thus war unfits a man for peace- 
ful life, and the old soldier longs for the in- 
dulgence, excess, vicco and excitement of the 
camp, notwithstanding the suffering and mis- 
ery which almost always accompany war. 
Such creatures of habit are mankind, that 
seldom any thing, but the grace of God, will 
reconcile an old soldier to the sober duties 
of peace. SufFei ing, anguish, and pain, gen- 
erally fail of doing it. 

But, under the reign of Bonaparte, there 
was no danger that the sword would rust in 
the scabbard, or be converted to a plough- 
share. In order to secure his brother's usur- 
pation of the crown of Spain, Bonaparte made 
war on that country, and Robert's regiment 
was ordered there, where it arrived in Jan. 
1810. It was indifferent where he went. 
He knew biit little of' the cause of the war, 
and cared less. But no man can deny, that 
he, who kills another' in an unjust war, is 
guilty of murder in the sight of God, as much 
as though he had killed him oh the highway, 
or in a duel. Numbers can never justify 
crime,, and, whether a man belong to a small 



44 ADVENTURES OF A 

crew or gang, or a large crew or gang, pira- 
cy is still piracy, robbery is truly robbery^ 
and murder is murder. I know, that many 
endeavor to throw all the blame on kings and 
statesmen, but kings and statesmen have 
enough sins of their own to answer for. 
That God, who has said, "Thou shalt not 
kill," will require the life of man from his 
murderer, be his station in society high or 
low, for He says also, " At the hand of every 
man's brother will I require the life of man." 
Gen. ix. 5-. 

The Spaniards resented the wanton inva- 
sion of their country with great indignation, 
and they were highly incensed at the perfid- 
ious manner, in which Bonaparte had made 
the royal family prisoners, and seized many 
important fortresses under the guise of friend- 
ship. " The Spaniards pretended," says Ro- 
bert, " that we were carrying on an un- 
just war against their country. Tins we had 
nothing to do with. Soldiers are not fit for 
meddling with such sort of things." But he 
will find, at the day of judgment, if not be- 
fore, that he has something to do with it. 
The Christians of nearly the first three cen- 
turies after Christ refused to take up arms 
for the Roman government, or to fight for any 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 45 

cause or any king whatever, and would rath- 
er suffer death themselves, than inflict it on 
others. Then " the lamp of Christianity burnt 
bright ;" and the church increased faster than 
it ever has since Christians began to use car- 
nal weapons. 

The Spaniards, very much enraged against 
the French and their guerillas, or small 
bands of soldiers, cut off many stragglers 
from the French army. They fell in with 
Robert^ who was going forward to provide 
for his company with two other soldiers. 
One of these they killed in a most shocking 
manner, making him suffer all the torments 
they could inflict, and they would have done 
the same to Robert, had not one of their 
company sprung forward and called him by 
name. It was Valdejo the Spanish volun- 
teer, whose life he had saved near Wismar. 
The Spaniards took Robert and his surviving 
companion, who was shockingly wounded, 
prisoners, and carried them off into the woods. 
His companion died of his wounds. The 
next day, in their march, they saw ' the body 
of a French soldier, stretched across the path. 
Two others were hanging on trees, and bore 
the marks of cruel and protracted torments. 
A fourth, with his head cut off, was hanging 
5 



46 ADVENTURES OF A » 

by one foot.' The Spaniards could not re- 
frain from displaying the ferocious joy they 
felt at such a si2;ht. Robert could not re- 
frain from expressing his grief, for which he 
came near being massacred ; but Valdejo 
saved him then, and afterward, from the pop- 
ulace, in the towns which he passed through. 
The French served the guerillas but little, if 
any, better when they caught them, and a 
system of retaliation was adopted by both 
parties, the bare recital of which makes one 
shudder. To return evil for evil is the prin- | 
ciple of war, and it sometimes leads to the 
most horrible excesses. To return good for 
evil, is the principle of Christianity, and it 
never fails, when persisted in, to disarm en- 
mity. 

Robert was ordered to be sent to Cabri- 
ra, a small desert island in the Mediterrane- 
an. Here he found six thousand of his coun- 
trymen in a most lamentable condition. * Ma- 
ny of them were quite naked, and as black as 
mulattoes, with beards like a pirate, dirty 
and out of order. Some had pieces of cloth- * 
ing, but they had no shoes, or their legs and 
feet and parts of their body were bare.' 
They had no places to sleep in, but such 
huts as they could make, without tools, out 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 47 

of Sticks and grass, three or four feet b 'gh, 
which every shower penetrated. Four or 
five persons slept in one of these huts, into 
which they were obHged to crawl on their 
hands and knees, and to crawl out again feet 
foremost. Robert here met with an old 
friend, who invited him to lodge, for a night, 
in his hut, which he did, with four others, its 
inmates. This obtrusion of a new lodger, 
into their narrow house, bred a quarrel and 
a duel, in which Robert acted as the second 
of his friend, who was blamed on his account. 
For want of swords and pistols, the combat- 
ants fought with razors tied to sticks. Duels 
of this kind were of almost daily occurrence 
on the island, but were seldom fatal. 

The prisoners had very scant allowance, 
and were often in a state of starvation, and it 
is reported, that cases were known, where 
one man had killed another, in order to eat 
him. The provisions were sent every four 
days, and sometimes were delayed a whole 
day longer. The allowance was very small, 
and some ate up the four days rations in two 
days, and afterward fasted, or hved on roots 
and grass, which carried off great numbers 
of them. In a time of great distress, a gold 
watch, which a prisoner had been able to se- 



48 ADVENTURES OF A 

Crete from his captors, was sold for half a 
pound of bread. All kinds of amuseoients, 
revelling and dancing were nevertheless car- 
ried on, and Robert himself contrived to get 
up a theatre. 

At one time the provisions were delayed 
for eight days. Many had consumed all they 
had on the third day. On the fourth they 
fasted. 'The next day, at the usual hour, 
the starving prisoners covered the heights and 
the shore, expecting every moment to see the 
long wished for vessel. Their anxiety con- 
tinually increasing, the day passed over and 
night came on, while their hopes became 
fainter and fainter. There was nothing heard, 
but one universal cry of horror and indigna- 
tion against the Spaniards, who had resolved, 
said the multitude, to leave them to die of 
hunger. On the first day of the scarcity, all 
the provisions on the island were consumed. 
On the second night, more than a hundred 
and fifty persons died of hunger and debility. 
The third day came, and the prisoners 
crowded to the shore : their looks were di- 
rected to the sea, but, at noon, nothing was 
seen.' They resolved to kill the only ass on the 
island — ahhough poor Martin was a favorite 
with them all ; but when his flesh and bones 



. FRENCH SOLDIER. 49 

were distributed, it amounted to only two 
ounces for tiiree men. A storm came on 
that night, which flooded their frail huts, and, 
at daylight next morning, it was found that 
three hundred persons had perished. On 
the eighth day the vessel arrived, and the 
sudden, though scanty, supply proved fatal to 
many. The cause of the delay was a dispute 
between two commissaries. What horrible 
barbarities are witnessed in war! It hardens 
the heart, and makes it callous to the sufier- 
ings of our fellow creatures. In how many 
ways does war increase the miseries and 
shorten the life of those who are engaged in 
it ! Doctor Johnson observes, " War has 
means of destruction more formidable than 
the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands 
and tens of thousands which perished in our 
late contests with France and Spain, a very 
small part ever felt the stroke of an enemy — 
the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst 
damps and putrefaction, pale, torpid, spirit- 
less and helpless, gasping and groaning, un- 
pitied by men made obdurate by long con- 
tinuance of hopeless misery, and were at last 
whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean, 
without notice and without remembrance. 
By incommodious encampments, and un- 



50 ADVENTURES OF A 

wholesome stations, where courage is useless 
and enterprise impracticable, fleets are silent- 
ly dispeopled, and armies sluggishly melted 
away." This is far different from the repre- 
sentation of a soldier's life in heroic fiction ; 
but all this may happen, and in fact, often 
does happen to a victorious army — a still 
severer fate awaits the vanquished. 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 51 



CHAPTER V. 

1810 to 1812. The French Soldier escapes — Rejoins the 
French army in Spain — Gains the cross of honor — • 
Falls sick and returns home — Engajjes in the Russian 
campaign — Taken prisoner by the Russians. 

Robert found means to escape from the 
island, and again joined the French army in 
Spain at the siege of Tortosa, where he dis- 
played a good deal of courage, and took three 
prisoners, for which he received the cross of 
honor, and was made a sergeant, which grati- 
fied his pride very much. It is by these 
decorations and promotions, that armies are 
kept together. Mankind are naturally proud 
and vain, and every little distinction or pro- 
motion over their fellow creatures, gratifies 
their vanity, and raises their pride still high- 
er, and, for this meed of praise, this "whist- 
ling of a name," they " seek the bubble re- 
putation, even at the cannon's mouth." But 
how short is the duration of their glory ! Soon 
they die, and carry no crosses of honor with 
them to the world of spirits. All their glory 



52 ADVENTURES OF A 

will not save them from the doom which 
awaits the finally impenitent. Man may con- 
fer a short-lived fame, hut " God seelh not 
as man seeth ; for, high as heaven is ahove the 
earth, so high are his thoughts above our 
thoughts, and his ways above our ways." 
On the contrary, the Christian's crown grows 
brighter at death, and he wears it forever in 
heaven. But men do not go to the field of 
battle to gain such crowns as this : they are 
not stained with blood, and they are confer- 
red not on tliose who destroy, but on those 
who save. 

Robert now fell sick of a fever, and though 
he escaped with his life, was for a long time 
unable to do duty, and obtained a furlough 
to visit his friends. He found Miette, the 
object of his early affections, and to whom 
he had been engaged, married to another, 
but he seemed to care very little about it. 
Why should he? If a soldier marries, his 
wife must either follow the camp, bear all 
the hardships accompanying it, and mingle 
with the most degraded of her sex, or she 
must be, for most of her time, separated from 
her husband, and in either case, it must be 
extremely difficult for him to support her and 
her children. 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 53 

Robert was very proud of his cross of honor 
and in hopes of further promotion, so that, 
when his furlough had expired, he left his 
home a second time, but now without regret, 
and joined his regiment, which was in Ger- 
many. He soon after engaged in the Russian 
campaign, which he entered into gladly with- 
out once considering the cause of the war, 
which was nothing more or less than the de- 
sire of Bonaparte to be emperor of the world, 
and to subdue all other empires, kingdoms, 
and republicks to his own sway and domin- 
ion. Indeed, ambition, or a love of power 
and praise, has been the greatest cause of 
war, from the time that Lucifer first made 
war in heaven, to this day. " From whence 
come wars and fightings ?" asks St. James, 
"Come they not hence even of your lusts 
which war in your members ?" As the love of 
praise is the greatest of all causes of war, it 
is evident that, if men withheld their praise 
from the bloodstained conqueror, wars would 
cease. If great robbers and murderers by 
wholesale met with the same detestation from 
mankind that awaits the pirate, highway rob- 
ber, and murderer, the race of conquerors 
would soon become extinct. But, in the 
opinion of the world, ''one murder makes a 



M ADVENTURES OF A 

villain, millions a hero ;" as though the mag- 
nitude of a crime changed its nature and 
made it virtue. Profiting by this disposition 
in the multitude, ambitious and artful men 
raise themselves to power : and bring whole 
nations into slavery, — not only foreign nations, 
but their own. " The first king," says a 
French author, " was a fortunate soldier." 
Such a man erects a monument of his power 
and glory on the ruins of his country's liberty. 
It is built of human sculls, like the monuments 
of Timour the Tartar, and 

He deems a thousand, or ten thousand lives, 
Spent in the purchase of renown for him, 
An easy reckoning : and they think the same. 
Thus kings were first invented. — Task. 

Bonaparte had already conquered more 
countries than any modern hero. He had 
destroyed more lives, and he was the most 
powerful monarch in the world, and had the 
most obedient subjects and servile courtiers. 
But it is impossible to satisfy the love of 
praise. Alexander the great, when he had 
conquered the world, cried, like the spoiled 
child of Fortune, because he had not another 
world to conquer. Oh, were men as anxious 
to gain " that unfading crown of glory, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to 



FBENCH SOLDIER. 65 

all who love his appearance and kingdom,'^ 
as they are to obtain temporal crowns and 
that honor which is but " a pufF of noisy 
breath,'* what a different world this would 
be ! But men labour for perishable renown* 

" The hero best example gives of toil 
TJnsanctified. One word his history writes, 
He was a murderer above the laws, 
And greatly praised for doing murderous deeds." 

Course of Time. 

But, after all, what are these heroes and 
conquerors, but, like the Assyrian, the rods 
of God's anger — ^curses and scourges to a 
guilty world ? They are doing God's will, 
though they do not intend it, and of every 
conqueror it may be said, as the Holy Ghost 
said of the king of Assyria, " Howbeit, he 
meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think 
so : but, it is in his heart to destroy and cut 
off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not 
my princes altogether kings ?" Two of 
Bonaparte's brothers and some of his gen- 
erals and courtiers were kings, " But shall 
the axe boast itself against him that heweth 
therewith?" "Therefore shall the Lord, 
the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones 
leanness, and under his glory, He shall kin- 
dle a burning, like the burning of a fire," 
(Isaiah x.) and so he did with Bonaparte ; 



56 ADVENTURES OF A 

when he had used hira to chastise the na- 
tions, he broke the rod and cast it into the 
fire. 

But are the slaves who follow such heroes 
any better than they f What are we to think 
of the Italians, the Dutch, the Swiss, the 
Austrians, the Prussians, in short, of the sev- 
enteen different nations who followed Bona- 
parte into Russia ? Will it be said, that some 
of these men were compelled, by the tyrant 
of France, to follow his fortunes ? But, a 
true hero will sooner suffer death himself, 
than inflict it on the innocent. If the fear of 
the consequences of a refusal was their mo- 
tive for committing murder, they were the 
worst of cowards. In the day of the resur- 
rection, when the four hundred thousand, 
who fell among the snowclad forests of Rus- 
sia, shall be called to their last account, will 
they be able to lay all the blame on Bona- 
parte ? Pollok, speaking of the day of judg- 
ment as past says, 

" From battle fields, where men, by millions, met 
To murder each his fellow, and make sport 
To kings and heroes — things long since forgot, 
In numerous armies rose unbannered all, 
Unpanoplied, unpraised : nor found a prince 
Or general, then, to answer for their crimes." 

Course of 7Vm» 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 57 

Robert gives but little account of Bona- 
parte's Russian campaign. He was at the 
battle of Borodino, where a standard was 
committed to him, by the colonel of the 
regiment, the ensign having just been killed. 
The Emperor coming up at that moment to 
encourage the troops, had a short conference 
with Robert, who reminded him of having 
seen him after the death of Admiral Ville- 
neuve. Bonaparte made him an ensign, 
which greatly raised his valour : but, as he 
was soon after taken prisoner by the Rus- 
sians, and sent into Siberia, from whence he 
did not return until after Bonaparte's fall, he 
never got his commission. 



68 ADVENTURES OF A 



CHAPTER VI. 

1812. Russian Campaign. 

As Robert gives us but little account of 
this memorable campaign, I w\\\ endeavour 
to supply his deficiency from other authors. 

On the 24th day of June, 1812, the Em- 
peror of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
passed the river Niemen, and entered on the 
Russian territories, with an army of 494,000 
men, his whole effective force including the 
garrisons he left behind amounting to 680,000 
men and 176,000 horses. The Russians re- 
treated before him, leaving a country, which 
before was but thinly settled, entirely desti- 
tute of inhabitants and provisions. On the 
next day, a storm came on, and ten thousand 
horses and many of his men perished. " Their 
carcasses were lying encumbering the road. 
They sent forth a mephetic smell, impossi- 
ble to breathe. Several soldiers of the young 
guard had already perished by hunger." 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 69 

(Segur.) Others had shot themselves in 
despair. By the 10th of August, only 47 
days after Napoleon entered Russia, he had 
lost-near a third of his army, and yet had not 
fought a battle. " The army had advanced 
but a hundred leagues from the Niemen, and 
already it was completely altered." The 
articles for refreshment suddenly failed them 
in their extremity, and " v^^ater was fre- 
quently wanting. The same was the case 
with dry provisions, and also with every 
necessary of hfe : and in this gradual desti- 
tution, depression of mind kept pace with the 
successive debilitation of body. From these 
sufferings, physical and moral, from these 
continual bivouacs,* as dangerous near the 
pole as under the equator, from this infection 
of the air, by the putrified carcasses of men 
and horses that strewed the roads, sprang two 
dreadful epidemics, the dysentery and the 
yellow fever. The Germans first felt their 
ravages ; they are less nervous and less sober 
than the French, and they were less interest- 
ed in a cause which they regarded as foreign 
to them. Out of 22,000 Bavarians who had 
crossed the Oder, 11,000 only reached the 
Duna, and yet they had never been in action. 

* An encampment in the open air, without tents. 



60 ADVENTURES OF A 

This military march cost the French one 
fourth, and the alHes one half of their army. 
At Wilna, it was not possible to establish 
hospitals for more than 6000 sick. Convents, 
churches, synagogues, and barns served to 
receive this suffering multitude. In these 
dismal places, sometimes unhealthy, but al- 
ways too few and too crowded, the sick were 
frequently without food, without beds, with- 
out covering, and without even straw and 
medicines." Segur. 

The French army, however, advanced in 
pursuit of the Russians, who retreated, throw- 
ing every impediment in the way of the 
French, while famine pressed on their rear. 
It is not my intention to follow these gigantic 
armies in all their movements, nor to de- 
scribe their battles, the greatest of which was 
at Borodino, where Robert was taken prison- 
er. The Russians still retreated, and even 
evacuated Moscow, the capital of the coun- 
try, which they set fire to as the French 
entered, and that most splendid city was 
burnt to the ground, which left Napoleon's 
army without quarters and without provisions, 
so that he was compelled to retreat. 

Labaume, another French writer, in his 
narrative of the campaign, speaking of the 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 61 

capture and destruction of Maro-Jares-lav- 
itz says, " The town in which we had fought 
was no longer standing, and we could only 
discover the line of the streets by the numer- 
ous dead bodies with which they were strew- 
ed. On all sides we saw human heads and 
scattered limbs crushed by the artillery, that 
had been raanoeuvered over them. Many of 
the sick and wounded had quitted the fight, 
to take refuge in the houses, which were 
now reduced to a heap of ruins, and under 
the burning ashes appeared their half con- 
sumed remains. The few, who had escaped 
the flames, having their faces blackened and 
their, clothes and hair burnt, presented them- 
selves before us, and, in an expiring tone, 
uttered the cries of deepest anguish." 

"As we advanced, the country appeared 
yet more desolate. But the most horrible 
sight was the multitude of dead bodies, 
which had been fifty-two days unburied, and 
scarcely retained the human form. My con- 
sternation was at the height, on finding, near 
Borodino, the 20,000 men, who had been 
slaughtered there, lying where they fell. The 
half-buried carcasses of men and horses cov- 
ered the plain, intermingled with garments 
stained with blood, and bones gnawed by the 
6* 



62 ADVENTURES OF A 

dogs and birds of prey, and with fragments 
of arms, drums, helmets, and curiasses." 

" As we marched over the field of battle, 
we heard, at a distance, a pitiable object 
who demanded our assistance. Touched 
with his plaintive cries, many of the soldiers 
drew near to the spot, when, to their great 
astonishment, they observed a French sol- 
dier, stretched on the ground, with both his 
legs broken. ' I was wounded,' said he, ' on 
the day of the great battle, and, finding ftiy- 
self in a lonely place, where I could gain no 
assistance, I dragged myself to the brink of 
a rivulet, and have lived near two months on 
grass and roots, and some pieces of bread I 
found among the dead bodies.' " 

Segur not only confirms this account t)f 
Labaume's, but adds to its horrors. He 
says, the field of battle " had all the appear- 
ance of an extinguished volcano. The ground 
was covered all around with fragments of 
helmets and cuirasses, broken drums, gun- 
stocks, tatters of uniforms, and standards 
dyed with blood. On this spot lay 30,000 
half devoured corses. The Emperor passed 
quickly, nobody stopped ; cold, hunger and 
the enemy urged us on ; we merely turned 
our faces as we proceeded, to take a last, 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 63 

melancholy look at the vast grave of so many 
companions in arms uselessly sacrificed." 

" Further on we beheld the great abbey 
or hospital of Kolotskoy, a sight still more 
hideous than the field of battle. At Borodi- 
no, all was death, but not without its quiet. 
At Kolotskoy, it was still raging. Death here 
seemed to be pursuing his victims, who had 
escaped from the engagement, with the ut- 
most malignity ; he penetrated into them, by 
all the senses, at once. They were destitute 
of every thing for repulsing him, except or- 
ders which it was impossible to execute." 
They had neith-er lint, tow, nor linen, to bind 
up the wounds, but were obhged to use the 
parchment they found in the hbraries of the 
convents. 

These hospitals were sometimes deserted 
by their attendants, and hundreds of sick and 
wounded were left to perish by debility and 
starvation. 

The sutlers, and other usual attendants on 
camps, were compelled to transport the 
wounded ; but they often took occasion of the 
darkness of the night, to tumble their unpro- 
fitable loads into the ditches, that they might 
save some of the plunder of Moscow. 

They had yet a few Russian prisoners, 



64 ADVENTURES OF A 

and, being unwilling to release them, they 
were shot through the head by their guard, 
probably without orders from Bonaparte, 
though 1:^6 did order a similar barbarity in 
Egypt. 

Hitherto, however, their sufferings were 
light, in comparison with what was to follow. 
Winter now set in, and the ground was cov- 
ered with snow and ice, with intense cold. 
The French were destitute of provisions and 
clothing, harassed and surrounded every 
where by hordes of Cossacks, with the Rus- 
sians pressing on their rear, and impeding 
their flight. Their miseries daily increased. 
Sir Robert Ker Porter says, 

"Multitudes of these desolate fugitives 
lost their speech, others were seized with 
frenzy, and many were so maddened with 
the extremes of pain and hunger, that they 
tore the dead bodies of their comrades to 
pieces and feasted on the disgusting remains." 
Sir Robert Wilson says, "In the hospitals of 
Wilna were above 19,000 dead and dying, 
frozen and freezing; the bodies of the former, 
broken up, served to stop the cavities in win- 
dows, floors, and walls ; but, in one of the 
corridors of the great convent, above 1500 
bodies were piled up transversely, as pigs of 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 65 

lead or iron. In the roads,, men were col- 
lected around the burning ruins of the cot- 
tages, which a mad spirit of destruction had 
fired, picking and eating the burnt bodies of 
fellow men." 

Segur, speaking in the language of the 
French Commissary General, says of the re- 
turn of the army to Smolensk, " Meanwhile, 
the dead bodies in the houses, courts, and 
gardens, and their unwholsome effluvia, in- 
fected the air. The dead were killing the 
living. The civil officers, as well as many 
of the military, were attacked. Some had 
become, to all appearance, idiots, weeping 
and fixing their eyes stedfastly on the ground. 
There were some, whose hair had become 
stiff, erect, and twisted into ropes, and who, 
amidst a torrent of blasphemies, a horrid con- 
vulsion, and a still more horrid laugh, drop- 
ped down dead." 

Such were some of the disasters of this 
ever-memorable campaign, sketches of which 
I have taken from many different authors, 
some of them actors, and all of them specta- 
tors of the scene. But I have related but a 
small portion of the sufferings of the grand 
army, and must pass entirely the passage of 
the Beresina, by far the most horrible of all ; 



66 ADVENTURES OF A 

for there the French killed one another, hi 
disputing for a passage across the bridges, 
while eighty pieces of Russian cannon were 
pouring death, night and day, on the suffer- 
ing and unresisting multitude, who were three 
days in passing. 

Of the seventeen nations, who followed 
Bonaparte into the frightful deserts of Russia, 
500 thousand men and 300,000 horses per- 
ished in 173 days. For, beside the army 
with which he first crossed the Niemen, he 
had received great reinforcements of men 
and horses. But accuracy cannot be expect- 
ed in detailing the movements and losses of 
such vast bodies of men : therefore, we find 
authors varying greatly in the numbers killed, 
but the lowest estimate will altogether exceed 
the comprehension of the juvenile reader, or 
of any except the conductors of such vast 
armies. It is said, that not more than 30,000 
ever returned to their " beautiful France," 
and many of them after a long term of cap- 
tivity. 

But we are not to expect that all the suf- 
ferings fell on the invaders. Probably they 
caused as much as they suffered. Cities and 
villages were burnt, harvests and provisions 
destroyed. Thousands were killed and wound- 



JFRENCH SOLDIER. 67 

ed, and perished without a shelter or a home, 
which had been destroyed either by the in- 
vaders or their own countrymen. It is said, 
that the Russians lost 100,000 men, and 
probably this is not more than half the 
truth. 

Nor are these sufferings peculiar to the 
Russian campaign, excepting the intense 
cold ; the detail is nearly the same in all wars. 
The retreat of the British from Spain, ex- 
hibited horrors equal, in their intensity, if not 
in their extent, to the sufferings of the Rus- 
sian campaign. But what matter is it to 
an individual, or his relations, whether he 
be slaughtered in a skirmish, or a battle ? 
except, indeed, that warriors and their 
friends seem to prefer much company, in 
their misery, and think that glory is in- 
creased in proportion to the extent of suf- 
fering. 

I must again remark, lest the reader should 
forget it, that these nations are called Chris- 
tian nations, in distinction from Mahometans 
and Pagans. And there are many who, I 
hope, are Christians, who admire the cha- 
racter of Bonaparte, hold him up as an ex- 
ample to their children, and name their sons 
after him ; but, will these persons tell us, what 



68 ADVENTURES OF A 

there is in the character of Napoleon Bona- 
parte which resembles that of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, or how any man can 
consistently approve of characteristics so to- 
tally dissimilar ? 



FRENCH SOLDIER« 69 



CHAPTER Vlt 

1812. Carried to Moscow— Sent to Siberia— Story of^' 
Daria and Wassili — Russian recruits for the army. 

We must now return td our hero. He had 
been led on to the charge by his major, his 
colonel having been killed, and fell wounded 
by two thrusts of a bayonet. ^ Crushed un- 
der the feet of the Russians, overwhelmed 
by numbers, unable to draw his sabre, he 
could not get up,' and when he did, was drawn 
along by the enemy in their retreat, and was 
made prisoner. He was sent back to the 
rear of the Russian army, and three days 
afterward entered Moscow, with 2000 other 
prisoners, almost stripped to the §kin. The 
governor of the city ordered the most indis- 
pensable part of their clothing to be restored 
to them, and, after giving them the most vio- 
lent abuse, in presence of the populace, be- 
cause they had left their own country to 
ravage his, for no offence whatever, he sent 
7 



70 ADVENTURES OF A 

them to a barrack, which served them for a 
prison, where they remained but twenty-four 
hours, and were then assembled in haste, as 
the city was evacuated on the approach of 
the French army. They were conducted 
by Cossacks to WJadimiz, and thence into 
Siberia, and separated into small parties 
among the iron mines. They marched five 
hundred leagues, and their journey lasted 
two months and a half; and for a long and 
dreary period, they were destined to hear 
nothing from their friends or their country. 
Though their lot was a hard one, it was per- 
fect happiness, when compared with the suf- 
ferings of their countrymen in their retreat 
from Russia. 

Robert's division consisted of a colonel 
Laplane, eight privates, and himself: and 
they were so fortunate, as to be appointed to 
a mine^ the captain of which was a French- 
man. He had known the colonel's family in 
France, and had received favours from them, 
and he therefore treated him and Robert and 
his companions in captivity very civilly. Rob- 
ert had recommended himself to the colonel 
by his good education, for learning never 
comes amiss, and often is an advantage to a 
man where he least expects it. The colonel 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 71 

and Robert were allowed a house by them- 
selves ; for Robert passed himself off for an 
officer, and the privates were put in work- 
shops where the work was least fatiguing. 
It is not common, in these enlightened days, 
to put prisoners of war to hard labour, which 
is a remnant of barbarism, now only practised 
by Turks and Russians, but other uncivilized 
people. Formerly, even among the pohshed 
Greeks and Romans, prisoners of war were 
put to death. But, avarice getting the better 
of revenge, they were afterwards sold for 
slaves. In later years, they were only kept 
at work during the war, and were released 
at the return of peace. But now, no civilized 
nation compels prisoners of war to work, but 
they are often kept on very small allowance, 
and their situation is very miserable. The 
prisons on shore are often damp, unwhole- 
some, and crowded : and prison-ships are 
still worse, and thousands pine away and die 
in them, far from home and friends, or any 
one to take care either of their body or their 
soul, and their corpses are thrown into the sea, 
or buried on shore with the burial of a dog. 
Robert, having nothing to do, busied him- 
self with the affairs of the simple people at 
the forge. He tells an affecting story of 



72 ADVENTURES OF A 

Daria, the daughter of a shopkeeper in the 
neighbourhood, who was privately engaged 
to Wassili, an honest man, and an under offi- 
cer of the forge, against her father's consent, 
who wished her to marry Asphanassi, one of 
the wandering shepherds of the Baskin fami- 
ly, belonging to the Nomadic tribes who in- 
habit that part of Asia, and travel, with their 
flocks and herds, over the vast steeps and de- 
serts, to the North, in summer, and return 
home again in the autumn. The sequel of 
the story we will tell in Robert's own word:>i» 
" At this period there came to Tchornaia," 
as the forge was called, " two Russian offi- 
cers, with several sergeants, who were much 
more like Cossacks than regular soldiers. 
Their appearance was the signal of universal 
mourning — they came to recruit. They pro- 
claimed, in the Emperor's name, that, on a 
certain day, all the men in the district, what- 
ever their age might be, were to assemble in 
the public square, there to be inspected. At 
the appointed day, every one was on the 
spot: but, it was easy to see, by their looks, 
that it was with the utmost repugnance they 
had obeyed. All the women were placed on 
the other side, and anxiously waited for the 
result of the inspection, and some of them 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 73 

were crying bitterly. We were present at 
this scene. The ofiicers placed the men in 
two rows, and passed along the ranks very 
slowly. Now and then, they touched a man, 
and he was immediately taken to a little 
group, that was formed in the centre of the 
square. When they had run over the two 
rows, they again inspected the men that had 
been set apart, made them walk and strip, 
verified them, in a word, such as our recruit- 
ing councils did, in our departments, for 
many years. When a man was examined, 
he was allowed to go, and then the crowd 
raised a shout of joy, or he was immediately 
put in irons, in presence of his family, who 
raised cries of despair — this man was fit for 
service. These unfortunate beings, thus 
chained up, were kept -out of view, till the 
very moment of their departure. No claims 
were vahd against the recruiting officer ; age, 
marriage, the duties required to be paid to 
an infirm parent, were of no avail. Some- 
times, .indeed, it happened, and that but 
rarely, that a secret arrangement with the 
officer, for a sum of money, saved a young 
man, a husband, or a father, from his caprice ; 
for he was bound by no rule. It often hap- 
pened, also, that he marked out for the army 



74 ADVENTURES OP X 

a young man, whose wife or mistress was 
coveted by the neighbouring lord, or whom 
injustice had irritated and rendered suspect- 
ed. Such is the mode of recruiting in 
Russia." 

" Wassili was at the review. The recruit- 
ing officer thought he would make a hand- 
some dragoon, or a soldier of the guard, and 
having looked at him from top to toe, he de- 
clared him fit for the army. While his fami- 
ly were deploring his fate and preparing to 
make every sacrifice to obtain his discharge, 
some one cried out that the officer would 
allow him to get off, because he was wealthy, 
but that the poor must inarch. The Russian 
heard this, and perhaps, on the point of making 
a bargain, felt irritated, and would listen to 
no sort of arranger^ent. Wassili was put 
in irons and destined to unlimited service, 
that is, to an eternal exile, for the Russian 
soldier is never allowed to return to his 
home." His term of service is twenty years, 
which \s generally for all his life." 

" Daria fell a victim to her grief, and only 
recovered some portion of her vigour when 
the recruits were to set out. On that day, 
the recruiting party gorge them with meat 
and brandy, till they are intoxicated ; they 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 



are then thrown into sledges, and* Carried 
off, stiil loaded with irons. A most heart- 
rending scene now takes place. Every 
family follows them with their cries, and 
chaunts the prayers for the dead and the 
dying, while the unfortunate conscripts them- 
selves, besotted with liquor, remain stupid 
and indifferent; burst into roars of laughter, 
or answer their friends •with oaths and im- 
precations." 

" Notwithstanding the force that had been 
shown to him, Wassili had drank nothing, and 
preserved his judgment unclouded. He 
stretched out his arms toward Daria and his 
friends, and bade us adieu with many tears. 
Amidst the mournful sounds that struck upon 
her ears, the young girl followed him rapidly, 
and had time to throw herself into his arms, 
before the sledge set out, but, the moment 
he was beyond her reach, she fell backward, 
with violence, on the ice. No one paid the 
least attention to her; tliey all rushed forward, 
and followed the sledges of the recruiting 
party, which soon galloped out of sight. I 
lifted up Daria ; i did not attempt to restrain 
her grief, but took her back to her father's, 
where she was paid every attention her situ- 
ation required.'' 



76 ADVENTURES OF A 

" Abftut the middle of June, Asphanassi 
returned, more in love and more eager than 
ever ; and as soon as he appeared, Daria was 
attacked by a burning fever that never left 
her. In a few days, she was at the gates of 
death. All the care bestowed on her was of 
no avail, and she died pronouncing the name 
ofWassili." 

Such has been tbe story of thousands, and 
this is but one of the pictures of war, as it 
appears in all despotic countries. How much, 
my dear young reader, you ought to thank 
God, that he has appointed " the bounds of 
your habitation" in a land of liberty. None 
but the poor negroes are used in this manner 
in the United States. Even in England, the 
press-gangs take men away from their family 
and friends, to serve in the navy, much in the 
same way as is done in Russia for the army ; 
and in France, they have the conscription. 
In our country we practise differently. A 
rendezvous is opened, where intoxicating 
liquors are liberally distributed, the worst 
part of the female sex are freely admitted, 
and dancing and licentiousness prevail, until 
the poor foolish recruit, long baited, is hook- 
ed at last. But when he has once signed the 
muster-roll, the delusion vanishes ; he has 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 77 



swallowed the gilded bait, and he must now 
feel the barbed hook, from which death is 
gener|lly the only release. Thus war al- 
fr 



>rings with it a train of other evils, and 
it is as deleterious to the moral habits of a 
people, as it is destructive to their lives and 
property. 



78 ADVENTtJRES OF A 



*m 



CHAPTER Vin. 



1814. Peace — Return to France — Bonaparte's escape 
from Elba — His second abdication — Robert joins 
Murat in his attempt on Naples, which fails — Tried 
for desertion, acquitted, and returns to France — In- 
vasion of Spain — Taken prisoner, escapes, and is 
dismissed from the service. 

Peace having been at length concluded, 
Robert set oiit on his return home with co- 
lonel Laplane, who had received money and 
a passport for two, from his friends. Hither- 
to they had been ignorant of the defeat of 
Bonaparte, and the retreat and disasters of 
the grand army. They were extremely 
anxious for news, but found few who were 
able, or willing to gratify them. Robert 
says, 

" We passed rapidly through Russia Pro- 
per, where, two years before — — ! The 
fields seem to have been cultivated and the 
villages rebuilt. We scarcely recognized, 
under the snow, the spot where the battle of 
Borodino, so important to us, had been 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 79 

fought. We passed over the bloody fields 
of Smolensko. without perceiving them, but, 
as we harassed with our questions all the 
postmasters and peasants whom we met, 
we learned, on approaching the Beresina, 
that the greatest disaster of the French army 
had taken place at the very spot where we 
were. Nothing could then overcome the 
sadness that oppressed, us ; we thought we 
were still in 1812, with our unfortunate 
brothers in arms, struggling with the elements, 
and falling under the attacks of the enemy. 
Amidst the snow that surrounded us, we 
could easily judge of the disasters of that 
terrible day. I felt an extraordinary oppres- 
sion of heart 5 we alighted a moment to honor 
the memory of our companions. Upon a 
bush which had caught my cloak, I perceiv- 
ed a leather sword belt hanging, almost worn 
away, but still retaining a plate of copper 
with an eagle on it. This sight powerfully 
affected me, but seemed to have still more 
influence on the colonel's mind. His gaiety 
did not return, even after we had left the 
banks of the Beresina far behind us." 

At length, Robert arrived in France, 
where he learned the particulars of the de- 
feat of Bonaparte, the annihilation of the 



80 ADVENTURES OF A 

grand army, the most powerful that ever en^ 
tered the field, Napoleon's abdication of the 
throne, and his banishment to the Island of 
Elba. He had always thought Bonaparte 
invincible, and that it was impossible, in the 
nature of things, that a French army should 
be defeated ; and no wonder, for Robert 
never took into account the power of God. 

Robert endeavoured to get himself ac- 
knowledged as an ensign before he visited 
his friends, and for that purpose, immediate- 
ly joined his regiment: but most of its offi- 
cers had been killed off many times over, 
and all those who could have borne evidence 
to the truth, had perished in the retreat from 
Russia, and he could scarcely find a single 
soldier who had known him, so that his fond 
expectations of appearing before his father's 
family, with an epaulet on his shoulder, were 
disappointed, and he took his place in the 
regiment as a sergeant, as he was before. 
He wrote to his father, and received an an- 
swer, informing him of the death of his 
mother, who, worn out with domestic cares 
and the thought that her son had fallen in 
the Russian campaign, had fallen into a sort 
of helplessness that brought her to the grave, 
after much suffering.' Alas, of how many 



FRENCH SOLDIER, 81 

mothers, whose sons have perished in battle, 
is this the melancJioly fate ! but how sel- 
dom do their sufferings and death appear in 
history ! 

Robert wrote again and again to the war 
office, in hopes of obtaining a commission, but 
without an answer, and he became every day 
more restless and uneasy, and often desired 
a new war to break out, that he might merit, 
a second time, the rank he had once obtain- 
ed, but which he now found it so difficult to 
get confirmed. His desires for a new war 
were soon gratified, for Bonaparte returned 
from Elba, and the events of " The Hundred 
Days" succeeded each other so rapidly, that 
he scarcely noticed them. He, at first, fought 
against Bonaparte, and then for him, chang- 
ing sides according to his hopes of promotion, 
Bonaparte abdicated a second time, and was 
sent to St. Helena, where he died. Intes- 
tine commotions continued in France, and a 
man did not always know on which side he 
was, himself; but all were willing to fight on 
one side or the other. Robert had a narrow 
escape from being killed as a Protestant^ 
though he was a Catholic. His life was 
saved by a Protestant woman, whose hus- 
band was killed by the Catholics while 
8 



82 ADVENTURES OF A 

Robert was in her house. He, however* 
escaped, after having run many risks, and, at 
length, arrived at his father's house at Six- 
four, still but a subaltern, after all his dangers, 
privations, and fatigues. 

He was very coolly received by the in- 
habitants of the villa2;e. No one bid him 
welcome, except his own family. He was 
viewed with suspicion and distrust as a 
Bonapartist, and, after two days, left Sixfour 
for Toulon, in search of his regiment; but, 
as the new royal authorities were not yet set- 
tled, and the imperial officers were hardly 
out of place, he knew not to whom to apply, 
and was ready for any adventure which should 
offer. He did not wait long, before he was 
engaged in the escape of Murat, ex-king of 
Naples, from France, in an open boat. Wliile 
in this boat, Robert quitted the service of his 
native country, and entered into Murat's, 
who appointed liim captain on the spot ; — an 
appointment, which was of as little use to him 
as his former one of ensign by Bonaparte. 
The plan was, to put IMurat on board of any 
vessel bound abroad, but, particularly, on 
board the mail boat, bound to Corsica. After 
waiting four days in great danger and dis- 
tress, and after having been ncarlj'run down 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 83 

by a brig, which they had attempted to board, 
they finally succeeded, in getting on board the 
packet, and telling the captain, that they had 
sailed on a party of pleasure from Toulon, 
and had been driven out to sea, and that as 
the boat had been damaged, they had con- 
cluded to abandon it, and go with him to 
Corsica. Falseliood and deception are so 
common in war, and so much justified by 
too many, that military men get used to 
it, and it troubles their consciences but 
little. The captain of the mail boat believed 
them, or appeared to do so, and consented to 
take ihem. 

Murat, with Robert for his chief officer, 
arrived safely at Corsica, where, though he 
was known, he was allowed to remain at 
peace, but not without frequent alarms. 
Robert now got a sword by his side, and an 
epaulet on his shoulder, of which he was 
very proud, though he was the only officer 
and the only soldier then under the command 
of the ex-king of Naples. But Mui?at made 
out to procure 400 followers in Corsica, with 
whom he made the rash attempt to regain the 
crown of Naples. He had diamonds and 
valuable jewels about him, by the sale of 
which he defrayed the expense of the arma- 



84 ADVENTURES OF A 

ment, which consisted of five small vessels, 
three of whicli, however, were dispersed by 
a gale, or voluntarily left him at sea, leaving 
him but two small vessels an.d fifty men. 
Robert was left on board, with some valuable 
documents which Murat entrusted to his care, 
while he himself, with twenty-nine men, at- 
tempted to invade the kingdom of Naples. 
Murat landed in a splendid uniform, and, at 
first, had some to hail him king, but was soon 
opposed, overpowered, taken, condemned, 
and shot, with all his company that landed. 
Thus ended the career of " Joachim Napo- 
leon, King of the two Sicilies," as he styled 
himself, alias Joachim Murat, ex-king of 
Naples. And thus ended this mad expedi- 
tion. And thus too ended the commission of 
Robert, who, if he was yet a captain, had no 
king to fight for. He returned to Corsica, 
and kept himself secreted for about a year, 
when his money failing, he delivered himself 
up to the French government, was tried by 
a court-martial for desertion, and acquitted, 
and was ordered to join a regiment then in 
Corsica. This regiment was soon after or- 
dered to France, Robert landed at Toulon, 
and once more visited his native village. He 
found his father dead, and he was very cool- 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 85 

Ij received by his brother. He now en- 
deavoured again to get his ensign's com- 
mission, and after having harassed himself 
with writing many memorials and petitions, 
he gave over the pursuit. 

Robert was next ordered to Spain, in the 
war which France undertook for the purpose 
of supporting the king of that country against 
his subjects ; where he was wounded and 
taken prisoner. In his captivity, he found 
many of his old companions in arms, fugitives 
from France, and now fighting against the 
armies of their country, expecting, if taken, 
to be condemned to death as rebels and de- 
serters : they, therefore, fought with an in- 
fatuated courage and desperation, until they 
were nearly all destroyed. " Such was the 
deplorable end of these unfortunates, who had 
assembled from the extremities of Europe 
upon a foreign soil." We may add, such is 
too often the patriotism of the soldier. Used 
to bloodshed and carnage, and uneasy in a 
time of peace, and unfitted for its pursuits 
and enjoyments, rather than not fight at all, 
they sometimes fight even against their native 
country. They seem to be given over to a 
judicial blindness, and experience the denun- 
ciation of our Saviour, when he says, " All 

8^ 



86 ADVENTURES OF A 

they that take the sword shall perish by the 
sword." 

Robert escaped from his prison, and after 
much suffering and danger, rejoined the roy- 
alist army, where he was near being shot as 
a spy or a deserter. His wounds became 
much inflamed, and he fell sick of a fever. 
He began now to be disgusted with the mili- 
tary service. He had sought for worldly 
glory and distinction, and he had, after near- 
ly twenty years of hardship and perils, got 
nothing higher than a sergeant's warrant, and 
was now very unceremoniously dismissed 
from the service, without having requested it ; 
but he left it without regret, and returned 
once more to Sixfour. 

Thus, though not deficient in learning, 
with an undaunted courage, and a strong 
constitution, Robert had fought and suffered 
for nearly twenty years in vain. Instead of 
complaining, he ought to have thought himself 
fortunate that his Hfe and limbs were yet pre- 
served, that he had not been killed in his first 
engagement, like his friend Rymbaud, and 
that he was not a cripple and a beggar. 
Thousands and ten of thousands, who had 
been dragged from their peaceful homes 
like him, by the conscription, or, voluntarily 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 87 

entering the army, had started with him in 
the same career of glory, had, long since, 
been laid dead on the gory field, and their 
bodies become the food of wolves and vul- 
tures : or had languished out a painful ex- 
istence in hospitals and prisons, " pale, 
torpid, and spiritless," living without conso- 
lation, and dying without hope. A few, per- 
haps one in ten thousand, rise to an enviable 
distinction, and, by giving up the comforts of 
this life and all hope ^ in the next, have ob- 
tained a fleeting, transitory glory, and this 
has been the ignis fatuus, which has lured 
them to their ruin. 



S8 ADVENTURES OF A 



CHAPTER IX. 

1823. Conclusion. 

I shall close the memoirs of Robert in his 
own words, leaving out, however, things of a 
less interesting nature. He says, 

" I am now at Sixfour, and shall never 
again leave ray native place. Here my lot, 
so long precarious and uncertain, is fixed at 
last. I shall perhaps enjoy, in the course 
of time, the peace 1 have so much need of: 
but nothing can ever fill up the void, which 
so many emotions have left in my heart. 

"Many prospects of fortune and glory have 
opened upon me during my military career, 
and the moment 1 thought they were on the 
point of being realized, the whole edifice 
disappeared before my eyes. I had also left 
pleasing illusions at Sixfour, and on my re- 
turn, find they also have disappeared, and 
that every thing has undei'gone a change. 

" I left my family happy and flourishing, 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 89 

and it is nearly extinct at the present day. 
My worthy father followed my mother to the 
grave, and left but little property to his 
children. 

" My brother is devoted to the mean labours 
of husbandry, and speaks a language foreign 
to my heart. He is quite absorbed by his 
daily habits, and despises a soldier who can- 
not sow a field of grain. Yet my father had 
educated him for labours somewhat more 
important. He contemptuously calls me his 
learned brother, or the officer, and is, p(g|^ 
haps, the only man in existence, who never 
found any thing amusing in the stories of an 
old soldier." 

Reader, let us stop here a moment to con- 
sider the condition of these two brothers, 
whose occupations and views are so different, 
and inquire which of the two is the most 
eligible, and most conducive to happiness 
here and hereafter. 

Robert, like most soldiers, thinks husband- 
ry and the mechanic arts mean and contempti- 
ble, as though the raising of a harvest were 
not more noble than trampling it down, and 
the support of life more honourable than its 
destruction. For my own part, I consider 
the man who has made an improvement m 



90 ADVENTURES OF A 

husbandry or manufactures, a greater bene- 
factor to his s|)ecies, and therefore more 
deserving of honour, than he who has -con- 
quered a kingdom : and when the pure and 
peaceful principles of the Gospel shall be 
generally received, the sword shall be beaten 
to a ploughshare, and successful husbandmen 
will be more highly esteemed than conque- 
rors. But it is time to resume the words of 
our disappointed hero. He further observes, 

*' Of the group, which old friendsliips had 
gShered round our family, I find that' very 
few remember me at all. M. Hymbauld died 
long ago ; I saw his son killed at Trafalgar ; 
Miette is the mother of five children, and 
cares about as little as I do for the remem- 
brance of our former love. She is, in my 
eye, nothing more than the good housewife 
of a retired citizen. 

" Thus, wherever my heart turns for conso- 
lation, it finds a dreary void, and 1 can obtain 
no other subject for my thoughts, than the 
melancholy recollections of the past. 

" 1 have been the perpetual sport of events, 
and have been placed too low to command 
any of them. 1 have been borne involunta- 
rily along by the movements of the multitude, 
and have never been able to raise myself 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 91 

above the sphere into which I was thrown 
bj chance, in spite of the constant efforts of 
twenty years, and tlie concurrence of a host 
of circumstances that were all favourable to 
my elevation. 

"How great and glorious did France appear 
to me on my first return home ! How far 
did I then think misfortune from my country 
and from me, Vv^hen, with 600,000 fellow 
soldiers, we entered the Russian territories, 
gained the famous battle of Borodino, and I 
was appointed an officer by the Emperor in 
person ! 

" Yet a few hours afterward, I fell, never to 
rise again. I became a prisoner to the Rus- 
sians, and two disastrous campaigns took 
place without its being in my power to share 
in their perils or their glory. 

" The trade of a soldier is the only one I 
ever knew, and now i can carry it on no 
longer. I learned to judge of mankind, and 
this knowledge is totally useless to me. In a 
word, during the wholeof the last twentyyears, 
I have been an alien to the affections of my own 
family, and a stranger to the feelings of the far- 
mer, the citizen, in fact, to every one of the in- 
dustrious classes, and wherever 1 go, I am out 
of place. Yet 1 cannot -make up my mind to 



92 ADVENTURES OF A 

be totally useless — My recollections may not 
be wholly uninteresting, at this moment, when 
every one is looking back with avidity to that 
brilliant period which will long claim the at- 
tention of the present generation. The pro- 
found impression it left on my mind forms 
the leading object of my thoughts : I feel a 
strong necessity of communicating them to 
others ; and it is this impulse, which has led 
me to compose the unimportant, but authen- 
tic memoirs, which I now submit to the can- 
dour of the public." 



fken(3h soldier. 9S 



CHAPTER X. 

Reflections of the Compiler. 

Thus end the memoirs and reflections of 
the French sergeant, Robert Guillemard, and 
with a few more reflections I too will close 
this abridgment"of his book. 

Let the juvenile reader beware, when he 
reads books of chivalry and romance, and 
even sober history, in which war is represent- 
ed as a sort of brilliant display and parade^ 
where there is nothing but feasting and 
dancing and victory 5 and let him look at the 
other side of the picture, and see the miseryy 
distress, and anguish; the tears, sighs, and 
groans ; the murder, horror, and desolation ; 
the robbery, theft, and Sabbath-breaking j 
the intemperance, lewdness, and profanenessj 
the crime, sin, and wickedness, which always- 
accompany all wars even the least objection- 
able ; and let him, with the Bible in his hand^? 

9 



94 ADVENTURES OF A 

form a deliberate opinion of the probable 
fuluie stale of that class of men who are en- 
gaged in war ; and let him peflect, that all 
these things, even the misery and anguish, 
both temporal and eternal, the victors share 
with the vanquished. 

If he should go to see a military reviewer 
a sham-fight, let him not be dazzled by the 
pomp, parade, and show, nor covet the gHt- 
tering epaulet, the gaudy dress, the burnished 
helmet, the nodding plume, nor any of the 
fascinating accompanmients of war; for they 
are but the gilding of a poisonous pill — the 
fair outside show of the grapes of Sodom and 
the clusters of Gomorrah, while all within is 
bitter ashes, fatal to the taste. " The path 
of glory leads but to the tomb." 

Let him examine into the lawfulness of 
war by the light of the Gospel. Let him 
take ihe precepts of the Prince of Peace as 
his guide, and see how far he is warranted in 
engaging in war, for any cause, save the 
most absolute self preservation. Wars waged 
to acquire glory, or wealth, or pov^'er, or ter- 
ritory, are all, in these enlightened days, 
condemned by the greater part of the pro- 
fessed disciples of Christ ; and the careful 
reader will find, on examination, that the 



FRENCH SOLDIER. 95 

Gospel condemns almost, if not quite, all 
those wars which have been called defensive, 
such as wars of retaliation and revenge for 
some real or supposed injury, and wars made 
under the pretence of preventing war, or 
jealousy of a rival's growing power. Even 
if the Gospel does not, in principle, condemn 
wars of self defence, which is at least doubt- 
ful, it condemns the manner in which they 
have almost, if not quite, always been carried 
on. What say the precepts of our blessed 
Saviour f " Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them that despitefully use 
you and persecute you." " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them," he. The Apostles preached 
the same doctrines, " Recompense to no 
man evil for evil." " Avenge not your- 
selves." " If thine enemy hunger feed him, 
if he thirst give him drink." " Be not over- 
come of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
" Let nothing be done through strife or vain 
glory. Follow peace with all men," fee 
The primitive Christians, who followed in 
the steps, and were the immediate success- 
ors, of the Apostles, considered war unlaw- 
ful for a Christian, and refused to bear arms 



96 ADVENTURES OF A 

in any cause, and suffered death themselves, 
rather than inflict it on others. Finally, if 
the young reader should try to fancy to himself 
Jesus Christ in the character of a general 
directing a battle, and his disciples leading 
on the charge, and pointing the cannon, 
he will find tliat he cannot do it. The spirit 
of war is in direct opposition to the Spirit of 
Christ, and " unless ye have the Spirit of 
Christ in you, ye are none of his." 

Let the young reader consider how zeal- 
ously Robert sought that glory which is 
"earthly, sensual, devilish," and which al- 
ways eluded his grasp, and let him seek that 
glory wl)ich is from above, and that charity 
which is " pure, gentle, and easy to be en- 
treated, full of mercy and of good fruits." 
Instead of seeking honour in the destruction 
of his fellow-creatures, let him seek the 
favour of God, by doing good to all men, 
and by obeying the commands and following 
the example of his blessed Saviour, who 
went about doing good to his enemies as 
well as to his friends ; and who came into 
the world, not to destroy men's lives, but to 
save them. Let him do this and have faith 
in Christ, and he will not be disappointed as 
Robert was, but he will have the satisfaction 



i^iiENCH SOLDIER. Qt 

6f an approving conscience in this world, 
and a crown of glory which shall never fade 
away, in the world to come. 

Let him inquire into his duty with respect 
to the great moral revolution which is to 
take place in the world, and which has al- 
ready begun, when war shall be viewed iit 
its true light ; when that grim demon from 
the bottomless pit shall be bound a thousand 
years, and men shall seek the things that 
make for peace. Were Christians really 
desirous of permanent and universal peace, 
they could easily cause the establishment of 
a CongresSj or Court of nationsj that should 
settle all disputes which might arise between 
different countriesj by reason and judgment, 
and not leave them to the blind fortune of 
war, which more frequently favours the 
wicked than the righteous. Let him throw 
the weight of his influence into the scale of 
peace, and do all he can to advance its cause ; 
and finally, let him pray eidery day that God 
would be pleased to hasten that glorious 
period, " when wars and fightings shall cease 
throughout the earth"— ^"when the sword shall 
be beaten to a ploughshare, and the spear to a 
pruning hook" — when *' nation shall not hft 
up sword against nation, nor learn war any 
9* 



98 ADVENTURES, &iC. 

more" — but when every man " shall sit 
under his vine and fig tree, and have none to 
molest or make him afraid" — a time which 
shall surely come — " For the mouth of the 
Lord of Hosts hath spoken it," and He is 
now, in His Providence, loudly calling on 
his children to come forward and put their 
hands to the work ; for though it will be done 
by the power of God, it will be by the in- 
strumentality of man, and there is no one, 
however low may be his standing, his talents 
or his acquirements — whatever may be the 
age, sex, or condition, who cannot assist in 
this joyful consumnmtion. 



FHATERPfAL LOVE. 



BY DR. DODD. 



Next to filial love, fraternal love is one 
of the most natural propensities of the human 
heart. The great and wise Creator, who 
established the present mode of being, has 
certainly implanted and interwoven in the 
very texture of the soul, all those tender and 
amiable charities, which are both pleasing 
in themselves, and indispensably necessa- 
ry to the being and good order of society. 
And he has so directed the mode of living, 
at our entrance upon existence^ that every 
thing is calculated to improve and strengthen 
these natural tendencies. Born of the same 
parents, brothers and sisters hang at the 
same fond breast, and drink the same milk ; 
fed beneath the same roof, they share the 
same united and tender cares, the same ideas 



100 FRATERNAL LOV£. 

are impressed, and they are taught to fegarrf^ 
each other as cemented by ties of the most 
endearing and indissoluble sort. No wonder 
hence, that a mutual and increasing prepos- 
session for each other gains upon the heart ;• 
while custom unites with nature, and both are 
strengthened by parental wisdom and solici- 
tude. Where that wisdom and solicitude are' 
properly exerted, Fraternal Love is seldom 
wanting : its deficiency, for the most part, 
must be attributed either to the parent's care- 
lessness and neglect to cultivate it ; or to an 
evil, which all wise parents will most care- 
fully avoid ; a partial fondness shown to one, 
in neglect of other children. 

It is undoubted, that some children from 
■nature inherit qualities, which render them 
more amiable and engaging than others, and 
there are circumstances in life which natural- 
ly lead to prejudices in favour of peculiar 
children. But, whatever the parental heart 
may feel, it will always exert the most cau- 
tious endeavours to conceal any such par- 
tialities ; well assured that they are not only 
Jblameable in themselves, but very frequently 
the cause of breaking that golden cord of 
(parental affection, which should always be 
kept most sacredly united, and which no 



FRATERNAL LOVE. 101 

jealousies should be allowed to dissolve or 
disturb. Without these, nature rightly en- 
couraged, and parents duly improving the 
affection, fraternal love, for the most part, 
will reigii amongst children ; for it is agree- 
able to nature, and all the right tendencies of 
nature will undoubtedly operate as they are 
designed, if not disturbed in their regular 
course, and if properly directed and aided by 
the wise hand of prudence and experience. 
And such prudence and experience will 
always apply to religion more especially, 
for this aid and direction : for the religion of 
Jesus Christ, amongst a thousand character- 
istics of its excellence, has this peculiar re- 
commendation, that it coincides with, and 
beautifully enforces, all the finest feelings of 
nature. Indeed, its highest and most dis- 
tinguishing doctrine — that, I mean, of uni- 
versal love, — is founded upon that fraternal 
relation, in which all men stand to each other. 
Children of the great Father of the universe, 
we are called ^' to love as brethren." Broth- 
erly affection therefore is not only expected in 
the professors of this religion, but is the best 
foundation for the attainment of its perfec- 
tion, and consequently, most acceptable ia 
the sight of God. 



102 FRATERNAL LOVE^ 

We have a pleasing proof how estimable 
it was in the sight of our adorable Redeemer, 
from the friendship wherewith he honoured 
Lazarus and his sisters. " Jesus loved Mar- 
tha, and her sister, and Lazarus :" no doubt, 
because this happy family excelled in frater- 
nal and sisterly affection, and, truly loving 
each other, were worthy of the love of Jesus. 
That they excelled in this affection, is suf- 
ficiently evident from that anxiety which the 
sisters showed, when their worthy and much 
valued brother lay dangerously sick ; and 
they sent that importunate and affecting mes- 
sage to their friend ; " Lord ! behold he 
whom thou lovest is sick*" Happy Lazarus, 
blessed with such sisters! Happy sisters, 
blessed with a brother so worthy your ten- 
derest esteem ! Happy family, whose united 
affection was crowned with such friendship as 
that of the Saviour of the World ! Oh, my 
young friends ! feel you not in your hearts a 
laudable envy of this favoured family ? an 
earnest emulation to be loved like them ? Be- 
lieve me, that emulation need not be in vain. 
^Tis with yourselves to be blest and to be 
favoured no less than Lazarus and his sisters : 
Jove one another as they loved ; be as cordially 
solicitious for each other's best welfarej and rest 



I'RATERNAL LOVE* lOS^ 

confidently assured, that Jesus will love you, 
as he did Martha^ and her sister, and Lazarus, 
That fraternal love is agreeable to na- 
ture, and well-pleasing to God, should cer- 
tainly be its sufficient recommendation ; but, 
besides this, it is productive of many advan- 
tages, and attended with many comforts. 
*' Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is 
for brethren to dwell together in unity !" 
That family can scarcely fail of fortune and 
felicity, who, brought up together in love, are 
early taught to consider each other's interests 
as one, and continue through life mutually to 
assist each other. Hence it is, tiiat we fre- 
quently find those parents most singularly blest 
in their families, who, having had the largest 
number of children, have made it their first 
and latest care to unite those children in the 
bonds of brotherly love. Human policy^ 
every consideration, incites to this care. For, 
as brothers are to each other the best and 
most faithful of friends, so are they, when 
disunited, too often the most bitter and pre- 
judicial of enemies : and that house can 
scarcely expect much worldly success or 
advancement, where jarring interests and 
jarring sentiments separate those who ought 
to be chief friends. 



104 FRATERNAL LOVE. 

The ancients, ray young friends, conveyed 
much of their instruction in fables. And 
there is one, which perhaps you may know, 
but which well deserves to be repeated, as it 
is not only applicable to our present subject, 
but very instructive in itself. A tender father, 
on his death-bed, called his children around 
him, and presenting them with a small bun- 
dle of twigs, ordered ihem to try, one after 
another, with all their force, if they could 
break it. They tried, but could not. " Un- 
bind it now," said he, " and take every twig 
of it separately, and see w4iat you can do by 
that means." They did so, and with great 
ease one by one, they broke it all to pieces. 
"Behold," said he, "my dear children, the 
true emblem of your condition. Keep togeth- 
er, and you will be safe, unhurt, and prosper- 
ous. Divide, and you are certainly undone." 
What inexpressible delight, when brothers 
and sisters of one family live together in all 
the harmony of friendship and good esteem ! 
mutually delighted and charmed with each 
other's presence and society ! — Peace dwells 
in their bosom, and transport beats at their 
heart. They know how to alleviate each 
other's troubles and difficulties ; they know 
how to impart and double each other's felicity 



FRA.TERNAL LOVE. ^ 105 

and pleasure. And if, perchance, their aged 
parents liv^e, who have formed thern thus to 
love } whose early care provided for them 
this high feast of the most delicate sensa- 
tions ; what increasing raptures do they feel, 
from blessing those parents with this fruit of 
their care ! O ye happy parents, if I could 
envy any beings upon earth, it were you ; who 
see your youth renewed in good and worthy 
children flourishing around you ; who see 
those children amply crowning your days and 
nights of past solicitude, not only with the 
most reverential respect to yourselves, but, 
with what you wish still more, if possible, 
with the firmest and most respectful love to 
each other ! who see those children, with 
all the kindness of that love you. sought to 
inspire, like olive branches verdant around 
you ; blessed in you, blessed in each other, 
blessed in themselves ; the providence of 
God smiling upon them ; success and honour 
attending their steps. Happy parents ! yours 
is a chosen lot. Happy parents ! who from 
the moment they become such, exert their 
utmost efforts to attain that lot, and to strength- 
en by the bonds of religion and instruction, 
what nature so^ kindly implants, and will aid 
so much in the rearing. 

10 



106 FRATEENAL LOVE. 

I said that success and honour accom- 
pany those who excel in Fraternal Love : 
they will not only feel the most pleasing com- 
fort which the human heart can enjoy ; they 
will not only have the greatest probability of 
worldly succ^ess ; but they will certainly find 
that, which is indeed one great means of world- 
ly advancement ; they will find real honour 
attending them : they will obtain all the ad- 
vantages which accompany good reputation. 

I dare appeal to the sentiments of any man 
living upon this occasion. You involuntarily 
and immediately conceive a good opinion of 
that young person, who distinguishes himself 
for his Fraternal and Filial Love. I join 
both, because I conceive they can never be 
separated. He who loves his brethren and 
sisters, will unquestionably love his parents; 
as he who loves his Christian brother, will 
assuredly love his Father in heaven. Let a 
person be recommended to you as excelling 
in this affection ; as remarkable for his 
tenderness and attachment to his family; 
your heart will instantly bear testimony to him ; 
you will esteem and honour him. Contem- 
plate a whole family, eminent for their union 
and affection to each other : see the brothers 
dutiful to their parents; kind* and respectful 



FRATERNAL LOVE. 107 

to tbelr sisters ; solicitous for, and serving 
each other: — you cannot help admiring them ; 
you are sure there is virtue and goodness 
amongst them ; you think, you speak of them 
with pleasure, and would, certainly, in world- 
ly matters, prefer, where it is possible, con- 
nections with them. This is the language of 
nature, of feeling 5 it is universal, and it is 
truly just. 

Need I, my young friends, offer any other 
arguments towards the cultivation of this vir- 
tuous affection ? Which would you rather be ? 
— ask your own hearts, — a Cain, stigmatized 
by the hand of God himself for fraternal 
hatred ; driven from society, an outcast and 
a vagabond, unnatural, irreligious, uncomfort- 
able, despised, hated : or a Joseph, melting 
with Fraternal Love ; forgiving every injury; 
blessing with prosperity all his house ; weep- 
ing over the necks of recovered brethren ; 
bowing the affectionate knee to an ancient and 
venerable parent ; virtuous, fearing God, 
abounding in plenty, in comfort, in glory ? 
Oh I where is the heart that feels not the 
contrast ? Yes, my young friends, while you 
shrink with horror from the fratricide of a 
Cain, you envy the life and salvation restored 
by the affection of a Joseph. 



108 FRATERNAL LOVE. 

Be it yours, like him, to cultivate in your 
hearts that fear of God, which so remarka- 
bly sustained him amidst all his trials and 
temptations ; which preserved him from de- 
filing his master's bed, wliich preserved him 
from avenging himself on cruel and unworthy 
brothers (for even a Joseph had cruel and 
unworthy brethren ;) which, far from ven- 
geance, inspired him with the most amiable 
disposition to forgive ; — and not to forgive 
only, but to succour and to save ! and thus 
to melt them to his love, by heaping coals of 
kindness on their heads. 




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